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I've done pretty much all of these things myself, and even I think this is a stupid idea. Homophobes won't become less homophobic just because they see overtly gay-friendly straight people: if anything, they'll just become even more defensive and aggressive. Straight people who give off all the signals of being gay, meanwhile, have to walk an impossible tightrope of remaining closeted to the straight community, without angering their gay acquaintances.
"When a person says something to suggest that he or she has misperceived your sexual orientation, think carefully before jumping to correct," says Brown. But what do you do if that person is gay, or if you're in mixed gay-straight company? The problem is that ambiguation is easiest in precisely those gay-friendly areas where it's least useful. And gay people – who tend to hang out in gay-friendly areas – are rarely flattered, and often offended, by straight people acting gay. Given that the whole purpose of ambiguation is, well, ambiguous, I think it's best to leave it well alone, at least unless and until someone can come up with a compelling reason why it might be a good idea.
Straights pretending to be gay?
I think I'm moving to Richmond on this one. I'm from a blue state - not a lavender state. Either you're gay or bi, or you're not.
Homosexuals sometimes like to think we're all queers, deep down, but actually, uh, we're not. I have plenty of gay friends, I hang out with them all the time. It's like the canard about the impossibility of a platonic relationship between a man and a woman: oh my goodness, I'm straight, but I have dinner with gay men! Somewhere in my soul I must be a fag!
I have gay friends because they're friends, not because they're gay, and I don't see how my pretending to be "one of them" would advance anybody's healthy friendship in any way. I think this notion that people should revel in sexual ambiguity is a stupid meme from radicals in the gay community.
Hey! Jame can use the word FAG and I can't get away with Carpet Munchers? Comfy shoe wearers? Dykes? Fuzz bumpers? Outback drivers?
Posted by: michelle on June 7, 2005 03:01 PM"disambiguating" - that's a new low in crankee yankee shite words.
Posted by: Jez on June 7, 2005 04:25 PM