He's had a partner for 18 years, according to the article. IMHO if gay marriage is going to have a chance of getting accepted enough in society to be legalized, going have to have well-thought-of guys like GT speaking out. Americana needs reassurance that the movement isn't some gay conspiracy out to destroy marriage as an institution, but just to extend the current marriage franchise a little bit. The perception by many of all gays being universally into the "bathhouse culture" & promiscuity is something that is going to have to change before that happens. Some gays won't be willing to give up that aspect of gay culture, but I don't think those folks are particularly interested in signing up for marriage as society currently constructs it, anyway.
I agree with you that we need more responsible, sensible people like George Takei to come out of the closet. Better yet, we need more publicity for the average homosexuals who are living sane, sensible publicly out lives.
It continues to boggle my mind that people still think of homosexuals as being into "bathhouse culture." We somehow managed to move past the image of singles as all being sex-crazy swinging dope fiends in the 70s and early 80s, so why do some people still have this perception toward gay men?
And I know people still have this attitude out there. On a recent business trip to Texas, I actually had a colleague (a smart, well-read individual) ask me, "Is it true there are a lot of queers out there in San Francisco?" It's a weird landscape out there.
When the gay marriages started in SF City Hall, we sent a reporter who'd only been in the Bay Area for a year or two. He told me that he was surprised that the couples were so conservative looking -- he had expected that there would be drag queens and all sorts of SF wildness. I think it was an awakening for him, and many people. However, while Dan Savage thinks that marriage is a good thing, he argues that gay couples shouldn't cop all of the habits of straight folk: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/21/DDGKTF7E2L39.DTL.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-10-28 05:40 pm (UTC)He's had a partner for 18 years, according to the article. IMHO if gay marriage is going to have a chance of getting accepted enough in society to be legalized, going have to have well-thought-of guys like GT speaking out. Americana needs reassurance that the movement isn't some gay conspiracy out to destroy marriage as an institution, but just to extend the current marriage franchise a little bit. The perception by many of all gays being universally into the "bathhouse culture" & promiscuity is something that is going to have to change before that happens. Some gays won't be willing to give up that aspect of gay culture, but I don't think those folks are particularly interested in signing up for marriage as society currently constructs it, anyway.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-28 05:58 pm (UTC)It continues to boggle my mind that people still think of homosexuals as being into "bathhouse culture." We somehow managed to move past the image of singles as all being sex-crazy swinging dope fiends in the 70s and early 80s, so why do some people still have this perception toward gay men?
And I know people still have this attitude out there. On a recent business trip to Texas, I actually had a colleague (a smart, well-read individual) ask me, "Is it true there are a lot of queers out there in San Francisco?" It's a weird landscape out there.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-29 04:46 am (UTC)