I'm politically adrift at the moment. My old home, despite my libertarianism, on the left appears to have changed the locks and put up a big "No cis white gay men" sign on the door. There's a house on the right with its door wide open but the house is made of gingerbread, there's a witch bearing an uncanny similarity to Milo Yiannopoulos beckoning at the door and I'm sure I saw a boy and a girl go in there earlier and not come out. I'm don't think that's the house for me.
Is there a rock to hold on to in order to stop the drift? This blog has been mainly devoted to my one stable obsession in life: LGBT liberty. I'm a "liberaltarian" at heart, a quick read through some of my teenage diaries shows clearly that no matter what I always end up returning to individual liberty as the overriding principle in my person morality, and I'm a gay man who grew up in Kent where lesbians, gays, bisexuals and trans+ folk all had to share the same small collection of bars and clubs (and thus social groups). But I feel, yet again Dear Constant Reader, like I've been somewhat naive.
Obviously, growing up in deepest, darkest Kent, I had little exposure to queer theory, feminist writings or LGBT political theory when I was young. My only exposure to other sexual and gender related minorities was "in real life" at bars and clubs. This made me think we were "all in it together". A few years ago I discovered, to my great sadness, that this wasn't true. Not only had some gay and lesbian people been holding us all back (see Stonewall and some Labour MPs for example) but they had, in particular, been unsupportive or outright hostile to trans+ people. Now I'm discovering that, yet again, I still haven't been seeing the whole picture. Trans+ people also (unsurprising given they too are a diverse group of people with different individual aims and objectives) have not always been supportive of gay, lesbian and bisexual rights and freedoms (take Caitlin Jenner as a recent, if not academic, example).
The latest NUS decision to stop supporting a guaranteed space on student LGBT society boards for "white cis gay men" just underlines the fact that we're not all in this together. In fact it now seems like the different groups of minorities, the number of groups growing ever larger, falling under the LGBT umbrella are working against each other in order to further their own agendas (let's face it, the gay agenda was pretty fantastic so it is unsurprising everyone has got their own...).
I can't keep on supporting the "LGBT" label any longer. The only people who now seem to truly believe in it are the sort of people I have already separated from as they usually also believe in the "evils" of masculinity, the "evils" of sex work and the need to control the sexual freedoms of others through moralistic rhetoric and legislation. I opposed such things when the religious supported them and I oppose them now when "progressives" support them.
So I'm embracing gay separatism. No, not gay separation from society as that phrase often means. But I really feel like it is time men who find other men attractive (to keep this as broad a category as possible) should refocus on things that are important to us. And I don't just mean gay rights and sexual health, though they are important to us (and often uniquely so), but also on remembering that we aren't joined together in some "community" by a love of opera or progressive politics. We're joined together only as people who share a, rather beautiful, love of the male form and psyche.
I don't find women attractive (and am also not a woman) so I'm unsure what insight I have into the needs of lesbians. I don't feel like I'm the wrong physical gender so I can't speak for trans+ folk. I'm as far from asexual as it is possible to be so their requirements are alien to me. And the list goes on. The regressive left have demanded white cis gay men should give up our positions so that others can have a voice. I say we should give them exactly what they want. We can all be happy then.
That way we can get back to fighting moralistic attacks on sexual freedom, fighting for decent sexual health provision (whilst the NHS exists and is bliming treating sports injuries I'm happy to let my libertarianism stay at home on this subject for now) and fight for a renewal of love for everything male. There's way too much hatred towards masculinity put around by gay men on behalf of feminists and our "allies" among the LBT+ folk who seem to believe that homosexuality is somehow related to men embracing femininity. There's nothing wrong with men embracing femininity but if you think that it is somehow part of sexual attraction to other men on a large scale then I'm afraid you've fundamentally misunderstood most MSM!
So let's have an amicable break-up, go our separate ways and start speaking honestly rather than mixing our messages together until they please no one.
1 comment:
Well said.
I've often thought there's no natural alliance between LGB and T+, and a disadvantage in that embracing them in the same movement perpetuates the false view that lesbians think of themselves as men and gay men think of themselves as women.
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