January 31st 2009
The End Of Gay Activism?
I
n Salon today, Thomas Rogers, a gay man who came of age in the 1990s, talks of his expectations as a gay: Dancing shirtless in a crowded dance hall, “a disconcerting number” of overly-flashy shirts, and of course, drag queens.
It’s odd to think of such a cultural emergence and one is tempted to feel sorry for Rogers for having such a sorry, sex-driven existence. But actually his coming of age wasn’t all that different from mine. As an 18 year old, I thought a lot about the important thing ahead of me: dances crowded with attractive women, all of whom would leave their blouses on (sigh!). I came to realize that some of my peers would not take to the freedom to dress themselves as well as others, and that there’d always be a guy with his shirt unbuttoned to his navel and a gal dressed like a street-walker.
Rogers gets to the meat gist of his story:
But something funny happened on my way to the gay ghetto: The drag queen disappeared not only from mainstream popular culture, but also, to a large extent, from the gay culture of my generation. Most young gay men I know are far more likely to head to a gay-friendly straight bar than take in a drag show, and while drag queens remain a fixture in many bars and clubs, especially those catering to older gay men, those venues appear to be dwindling.
Nearly all of New York’s mammoth gay dance clubs have shut their doors since the ’80s, and demographics suggest that gay men are increasingly leaving behind gay neighborhoods, like the Castro in San Francisco. Half of Boston’s gay bars closed between 1993 and 2007. New York’s Wigstock and San Francisco’s Trannyshack, the two best-known drag revues in the country, have ended their runs.
Should we lament the passing of the drag queens? Those who love campiness can if they wish, but campy or not, they are symbols of skewed sexuality, promiscuity and corrupted morals, so society will not suffer their demise. But …
The drag queens are disappearing because of the mainstreaming of homosexuality in our culture. As Rogers says, the demographics show the gays leaving their protected enclaves and moving into the lofts or suburbs of their choice, without fear of how straight society will react. Yet the language of “homophobia” continues, as we saw in California where gays accused people who don’t care if their insurance broker, hairdresser or neighbor is gay were accused of homophobia merely because they stood up for the institution of marriage.
Activist gays who have made their living off of the gay rights movement and their diehard supporters are in the same boat as the false prophets of black victimhood who are confronted with a popularly elected black presidential non-victim. They see favorable portrayals of gays on television, gays living together comfortably in suburbs and cities, a lack of discrimination in jobs and benefits, no need any more for drag queens, yet they fail to accept their victory and fight for what’s already won.
The headline says “the end of gay activism” with a question mark. I don’t think it is, even though it appears to be moving toward an end. Gay activists will continue to perceive persecution, try to force their sexuality into our school curricula, and pursue the unholy gay grail of holy matrimony. But like black victimization activists, they will become more marginalized over time.
Traditionalists have reasons to be uncomfortable with the mainstreaming of gay culture. We fear moral breakdown, worry about too much sexuality being forced too early on our kids, and abhor judicial activism and the legislating of issues that offend our morality.
Morality means a lot to traditionalists, much more than it does to those who flaunt immorality, and because of the disgusting exhibitionism that goes on with gay pride parades, we fear immorality will spread virus-like into our families. The sooner we can get rid of these worries, the better – and no matter where we are on the morality-meter, we know that repression and legislation won’t make gays go away.
But we traditionalists also have reason to be comfortable with gay mainstreaming. A gay couple in a committed, long-term relationship is less threatening to us than a couple leather-clad gays having sex in stall next to ours. A gay doing well in his job even as his bosses are aware of his sexual preferences is less threat than one hiding his sexuality and seething with anger. If it’s “love the sinner, hate the sin” we profess, then we should be happy that the sinners aren’t suffering. Persecution harden walls, driving people to activism and anger; acceptance and success bring them to a complacent acceptance of society as it is.
This all started with a couple quick thoughts on Rogers’ story of drag queens, and as you can see it became complex, troubled, even contradictory. Such is the fate of deep moral issues. It’s much easier to just float through life without asking tough questions – to hate or accept without much thought. Thank God that’s not my life; it’s the pondering and probing that makes life worth living.
But something funny happened on my way to the gay ghetto: The drag queen disappeared not only from mainstream popular culture, but also, to a large extent, from the gay culture of my generation. Most young gay men I know are far more likely to head to a gay-friendly straight bar than take in a drag show, and while drag queens remain a fixture in many bars and clubs, especially those catering to older gay men, those venues appear to be dwindling.
So there’s no reason to be surprised when 




SCRATCH John Edwards off the list of potential vice-presidential candidates. The former White House contender, who had been hoping to get the nod from Barack Obama, is in the midst of a full-blown sex scandal.





