“Post-mos don’t hang rainbow flags in their windows or plaster them on their bumpers. We don’t march in Pride and we probably never will. (After-parties only, please.) We don’t torture ourselves to fit in with other gays. In fact, most of us have come to resent the stereotypes and the ideals associated with preceding gay generations. It’s not that we hate gay culture; we just don’t have that much in common with it anymore. To be a twentysomething gay man in Toronto in 2011 is to be free from persecution and social pressures to conform. It’s also, in most ways, not about being gay at all.”
The above paragraph is from an article called “Beyond Gay” that appeared in Toronto magazine The Grid this week. It has caused a whole bunch of strong reactions. People all over the world are twittering & tumblring their thoughts… and having major HATE-ons for the poor boys that modeled (and are quoted) for the photos.
What do you think?
Time does change everything.
It know appears that we are in the ME generation.
Everyone only seems to care aobut one thing and one thing only, themselves. I don’t understand how anyone is ever going to meet anyone while they have headphones stuck in their ears and they are walking down the street texting and not looking where they are going.
Us older folk put time, energy and effort into getting our “community” into the mainstream and being accepted. It seems like the “younger” generation of gay men have no respect for us and treat us like we don’t exist. What ever happened to good manners and good breeding?
But you only need to look at their clothes in that photo to tell they are homos – no-one is an individual, they have formed their own gay subculture and should admit that
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
George Santayana (1863-1952)
This is another reason why I really dislike my peer group. I really do agree with everything time4fun said. Their statement goes right up there with “Straight-acting gay” as one of the most irksome things I’ve ever heard from someone who is gay.
It’s said that not even gay people seem to get it in their head that being gay is a sexuality, nothing else. Yes, there was a “culture” formed around it in the early/mid 20th century, but that was more out of necessity than “Let’s do it because it’s fun and shit.” They were not accepted and mercilessly ridiculed by people and the media, so creating a culture based around their sexuality allowed them to know who was “one of them” and safe to be open around.
While I do agree that there is no longer a need for such a culture in the present day, as homosexuality becomes more accepted and protected, I have to say it is utterly ridiculous to mock it in such a way.
I might just find a way to get my age legally changed, because kids like this make me ashamed to be associated with their generation.
Second paragraph, I meant to say “sad” instead of “said”. Sorry.
I’m somewhere in the middle on this. I see a great need to understand, acknowledge, and remember the past actions that have lead us here, but I don’t really fit in anywhere in the culture. I don’t find it offensive or disgusting, or shameful, I just don’t identify with most of gay culture. Maybe it is because I am bisexual, who knows? I don’t know what these guys’ intent was, but I do understand not finding a place in the culture and how strange it is to feel that “you have to conform to our culture”. Isn’t that what gays were originally rebelling against anyway?