From: Michael Thomas 
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Re: motsscultural musings
Date: 20 Dec 1996 13:58:17 -0800

Rod Williams  writes:
> Conversely, there's the argument that AIDS has enabled, if not
> forced, the coming out of a far greater number of gay people than
> might otherwise have done so, and far sooner too.  And that the
> freedom that comes with being out has enabled them/us to be more
> fabulous/creative/productive than we might otherwise have been.

   That's sort of been my feeling, but compared to
the 70's the gay scene itself seems, well,
devastated. I remember the late seventies and
there just doesn't seem to be much comparison to
the numbers of people, even given how misty
watercolored memories (somebody slap me now) paint
a rosier picture than was real. I guess that AIDS
or no, our emergence sort of predicted that fall
since the party couldn't go on forever, but it
still seems that AIDS has thoroughly decimated
fabulousness. Or maybe it's just brought the
ordinary homosexual out into the open. 
   In a lot of ways, it's hard to imagine making
very big political strides when all we were
thought of as depraved party faggots who are
getting more than you, thbbbbbbt. AIDS has brought
forward a great deal of unvarnished hatefulness that
is really hard to just shrug off. While in itself
awful, I think it's gone quite a ways toward
marking a line in the sand that the average Joe
can decide where he stands. I think it takes a
extraordinary dose of conviction to be so hateful
to sick people, one that ultimately works in our
advantage. Without AIDS, I can't imagine a line
being drawn that would have been stacked so much
in our favor.

> In many ways, out LGBT people have helped the
> straight world to start questioning and coming out of of its
> closets too.

  My father told me once that he really envied me
because I was able to invent my life without
regard to social strictures. I suspect that he
is far from alone.
-- 
Michael Thomas	(mike@mtcc.com http://www.mtcc.com/~mike/)
  "You'll have to forgive me, I drank too much last night 
   and my hands are still shaking."
   -- My Bug on why my signature he was forging didn't look legit.