Yes, fellow gays, it's partly our fault
This short bit is getting so much traction on Notes that I thought I’d put it here and see what you all have to say.
Right now, gays are building an ego-protective myth about who we are and what we've done. They're building this to avoid having to face the truth. I’m seeing gay men castigate people left and right for being “homophobes.” Why? Because normal, everyday, non-gay people are noticing the debauchery and commenting on how it’s changing their perceptions of homosexuality.
That’s right, homosexuality, not merely and only the “trans queer” set. Friendly people who mean me no harm have told me privately (they are terrified to say it publicly) that they’re pulling away from some of their gay friends over this because those friends are calling them “homophobes” for objecting to the sexualization of the public square, and especially children.
These gay men pitching a fit don’t seem to grasp that they are creating the very “homophobia” they claim to despise.
Such gay men want to believe that gays aren't responsible for the current debauchery that's taken over our public lives. They want to blame "the trans" and "the queer" for "taking over."
In actual fact, none of this "takeover" could have happened if gay men weren't the way we are. And how are we (supply your own not alls):
1. Sexually gluttonous. We always have been. We have a male sex drive that is not tempered by female disapproval. We are what straight men would be if women let them get away with it.
2. We are a very psychologically sick population. Going back decades, the literature (and experience) has shown that the rates of drink and drug addiction, personality disorders, mental illness, and unresolved child abuse issues are far higher among us than the general population.
3. Boundary breakers. We've always gotten a thrill from taboo sex. We are the population that has sex in bushes and public bathrooms. We are the demographic that brought out the modern bathhouse and backroom at night clubs.
We built and furnished the palace decades before trans came along.
Why wouldn't they move in?
Try dealing with Trumpophobes. As an openly engaged Trump supporter I have been called a right-wing extremist, white supremacist, racist, xenophobe and ,yes, homophobe. I have been called stupid and ignorant, and I have been told I should be in jail and/or I should leave the country. And this doesn't all come from the ignorant hoi polloi; all of this has also come from the 'enlightened' talking heads at CNN, MSNBC, NPR, PBS, NYT, WaPo, and a bunch of others. And I can also include Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, AOC, Maxine Waters and the rest of the cabal of professional bigots posing as compassionate citizens.
Here's how I see it. People have a right to hate. Our freedom includes the right to express that hate. It's sad and it's pathetic, but these haters say more about themselves than they say about me. The fact is, anyone has a right to hate gays, and they have a right to hate Trump supporters, or anyone else. If I attempt to intimidate them into a compliance of silence, or of phony support, then I am just playing their sick game their sick way.
The good news is, we're all getting sick of it. As you suggest, it is not a person's being gay that bothers people so much, it's having it thrown in our face and being told we have to comply with some sort of made-up standard of tolerance. In the past, I've lost terrific gay neighbors to AIDS. I have gay friends. But they did not and do not wave their gayness in my face, and in return, I don't wave my Trump support in their face. After all, NO ONE has a right to be an asshole.
Brutally honest. Thank you for saying what so many can't or won't say out of fear. The problem with our culture is moral cowardice. It's important to hear this from a courageous man.