sdyer@bbncc5.UUCP (Steve Dyer) (08/16/85)
To all of you out there in net land, I have been wondering if you
would be interested in the view point of a "straight" married female. You
might be interested to know that we share some of the same views. I have
also been unhappy about the volume of postings to this net group. What is
there tends to be of good content, but what struck me the most is I always
see the same names. I am posting this via anonymous electronic mail for
two reasons. I am new to the net and have just not learned how to post, and as
I am only working for the summer, it was not worth taking the time. Also,
to be honest, I would hesitate to post to this news group because I would
not want anybody getting the wrong idea about me, even if I am married. Of
course if anybody did, that would mean they also read this news group, right?
It will not be possible for me to receive any mail, as I am getting ready to
leave, but I probably still be reading the news group, so any public responses
(good or bad) are welcome.
I am sure you wonder why I would be interested in your news group.
Some of you may think it is only a sordid curiosity. I like to understand
what is happening around me. The foreign friends I have had fascinate me
when they talk about their culture and beliefs. In the same way your
culture fascinates me. You live a life and emotions I do not understand,
only because you are in a situation unlike any I have ever known. The only
close gay friends I have had were in high school, and still in the transition
period where they had serious questions within themselves, so yours is a world
completely unfamiliar to me.
As for Ken Arndt, I know he attacks a very sensitive area with you,
but I really think it should not bother you. In reading other news groups,
he is just as unpopular. More than any other, he is openly insulted for his
view points. Coming from anybody else, I can understand the agony it would
cause, but Ken is a sub-human life form with a pretense of human emotions. I
was honestly surprised when he said he still loves you, and when are you going
to get together. I would have been even more surprised if you had taken him
up on it, and would have assumed it was only to greet him in hostile numbers
with ulterior motives, but then that would be sinking to his level.
One thing I would like to say, just as you might not like being
characterized as having a certain behaviour because you are gay, I too feel
slightly offended by the category you lump us in at times. Remember, the
most hostile are probably also the most verbal. Do you always have the best
of your group represent you? On our campus the "leader of the gays" (self-
proclaimed, of course) was the local joke, and though I don't know this for
a fact, I suspect he only made things harder for some of the others. It seemed
that every time he did not get what he wanted it was because he was discriminated
against for being gay. This was believable the first time, but the fourth or
fifth time, the story got old. Now, if I believed he truly represented all
gays on our campus, I would have come up with a pretty low opinion of them.
Instead, I chose to judge people on an individual basis.
On the Jason on Bars article - I found it amusing. It seemed to me
to be a cross between honesty and friendly humour. It did not seem like the
article of a depressed resentful person taking his problems out on others.
I also learned something from it, as I have learned from all of the articles,
but I didn't take it as a verbatim narrative of a typical night at the bars.
It seemed the point was the emotions creating the actions, not a satire of
the gay whores. The articles on the gay emotions have been much more interesting
than the rehashed stories on AIDS. This is the only place I know that I can
find such honesty about the feelings and struggles of gay people. Of course,
it would mean more if more people contributed. I strongly encourage others
to take advantage of the anonymous postings. It would also help if any body
who did chose some nick name, so multiple postings can be easily followed.
Well, I know I have rambled on. I hope this was taken in the positive
way it was intended. If I have inadvertantly offended anybody, I apologize.
I am not aware of everything that is acceptable, ie - I didn't know
homosexual was a derogatory term until reading this group, I always thought
the term gay was more insulting.
Bear
--
/Steve Dyer
{decvax,linus,ima,ihnp4}!bbncca!sdyer
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