If you've ever wondered why there's a dearth of radical older gay men, mostly in the range of 50+, it's at least in part because of that. Puritanical anti-sex assholes like Larry Kramer managed to survive for obvious reasons, and then got to revise history and sound like an unheard Cassandra, when the reality was that a lot of the damage had already been done by the time he started his own activism.

In my view, this led to a rightward shift in the activism of the gay community, which ended up hijacking a lot of the hard work that lesbian and trans activists had built up, and moved towards respectability rather than queer liberation.

All the more reason to say fuck Reagan for ignoring it for nearly a decade. Even Thatcher did something about it and that's saying something.

This isn't even my take, it's something that an AIDS activist in the late '80s said, that AIDS killed off the interesting gays. But thought it would be

    • Samsara [he/him,he/him]
      3·
      4 years ago

      As a means to establish communism? no not a good thing.

      but as a means to normalize the existence of trans people? I think yeah.

      • gayhobbes [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Normalizing existence is not about assimilation though.

        • Liberalism [he/him,they/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          I'd say that some degree of assimilation is evidence of societal acceptance even if it isn't a good thing in and of itself.

          • gayhobbes [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            I don't have an easy solution, but if gaining societal acceptance means going the same route as the shitty white cis gay men who've thrown everyone else under the bus, I hope that never happens to them.

            • Liberalism [he/him,they/them]
              1·
              4 years ago

              What I mean to say is, when some members of a group "sell out" to the right by going Blaire White or whatever, that's not good.

              But the fact that they were even able to do so in the first place is a good sign, because it most likely means that all the members of that group are being treated better by society.

      • rasputine [she/her]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Absolutely fucking no it is not. Conservatives don't allow entry to minorities who want rights. They allow entry to minorities who think that minorities have too many rights already. All they're willing to accept is a token who will stand up and argue that yes, in fact, the left want to give me special rights and I don't deserve them. That's the only thing the right will voluntarily normalize.