sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer) (08/14/84)
From the terminal of Dionysus--
I am going by the pen name (terminal name) of Dionysus. I think
there is a lot of fertile ground to talk about. I had answered a couple
of postings by mail and asked the person to post my reply (but no result
so far). Topics to discuss:
1) Political climate: many older Gays are worried about
the pendulum swinging back and the start of witch hunts.
This is actually happening in the US Government especially
the military and intelligence agencies.
2) In view of the above how wise is it to come out fully.
Remembering how irreversible the process -- Advise and Consent
has an example of the consequences.
3) How did you meet your SO? Do you agree with the myth
of the average length of a Gay relationship is 6 months?
4) How do you meet people other than at a Student Gay Group
or the bars? (NB I live near Chicago -- look me up. Let's
have a party a'la the singles group). [Transcriber's note:
this may be hard, given the author's request for anonymity!]
5) Have you experienced any "real" discrimination. E.g. I got
fired for being Gay.
Dionysus
--
/Steve Dyer
{decvax,linus,ima}!bbncca!sdyer
sdyer@bbncca.ARPAsdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer) (08/14/84)
Political climate: many older Gays are worried about the
pendulum swinging back and the start of witch hunts.
This is actually happening in the US Government
especially the military and intelligence agencies. In
view of the above how wise is it to come out fully.
Remembering how irreversible the process -- Advise and
Consent has an example of the consequences. Have you
experienced any "real" discrimination. E.g. I got fired
for being Gay.
Comments like Dionysus' are valuable as reminders of how bad it can get.
Nevertheless, gay people who have not experienced such oppression and had it
affect their lives, though they might be called naive in certain circles,
are actually agents of change, demonstrating to people closeted by
fear and doubt just what can be, if they only say so.
To be a bit corny, "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose."
Coming out, or even just deciding to invite others into your "closet", is
indeed an irreversable act, and a step into a great unknown. But, for some
people, it is simply the only way to live: they'd rather be faced with a
single reality, be it pleasant or not, than the menagerie of horrors
presented by a worried imagination.
Which is not to argue against common sense: if you are working for the CIA,
like your job, and don't want to lose it, then don't come out. Some of us,
having started careers in the post-Stonewall era, just won't work for
companies which have a record of homophobia. Should the pendulum swing
back again, well, that's just something we'll have to deal with if it
should ever happen. But that's assuming that there is any pendulum to
swing. My own opinion is that the changes we've seen in society over
the past 25 years in the areas of racial equality, women's rights, and
the nascent area of gay rights, are broad and far-reaching, and will
not be easily turned back. The witch hunts of the fifties happened in
a different culture than we have right now.
There will always be individual incidents of discrimination or harassment,
and one certainly must accept the possibility of such things. But to make
this rule your life? Hopefully not. I can luckily state that I have
NEVER been the recipient of any overt discrimination, nor have my gay
friends.
--
/Steve Dyer
{decvax,linus,ima}!bbncca!sdyer
sdyer@bbncca.ARPAtodd@bnl.UUCP (Todd Arensen) (08/28/84)
Fired for being Gay? No. Had my tires slashed and my car's roof painted (in pink) "Fucking Fag". Yes. Other than that, no real discrimination. Why do you ask? Todd Arensen