How Far We've come

One thing I find fascinating about Duberman’s Stonewall (and this whole class really) is seeing how split apart the gay community was back before and around Stonewall. I keep trying to imagine myself participating in the gay community of the 50’s and 60’s—which organization meetings and conferences would I have attended, would I have played into butch/femme roles or taken on a Kiki personality, chosen to assimilate or be radical. Although my gay life so far seems to have taken on somewhat radical edges, I’m quickly realizing as commencement rears its ugly (though much wanted) head, that those choices, my work in the GSC, and my public affection for my girlfriend, have all been made within the privileged realm of Carleton. And while I still absolutely think that our gay ancestors were able to do a pretty good job paving the road, and that I am unlikely to be attacked by a police officer at a gay club, I know that ultimately I will have to face all those same decisions, though perhaps in a subtler fashion.
I think the more academic point I’m trying to make is that while I was initially amazed at how far the gay community has come, I think in reality, its disagreements have just become subtler. For instance, it seems to me like the “assimilate vs. radicalize” debate of the 50’s and 60’s has shifted to the “normalize vs. celebrate” debate of today. While these two clashes are very different, I think at their core, they are asking the same question, and it was only by asking and fighting over the first, that we’ve been able to partake in the latter.
As a young gay (both in terms of biological age and years since coming out—is there an official gay term for that? Because I think there should be. Maybe gayge?), I have not really figured out my answers to these questions. I want to be both radical and normalizing, to fight the government and its heterosexism, yet make it so young kids can think about their sexuality without scaring it out of themselves first. So, while we’ve come a long way, we certainly have a long way to go yet. And I’m excited to be a part of as much as I can.