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June All these complaints are akin to the recent statement by a Missouri lawmaker who has a long record of opening his mouth to change feet: “When you look at the tenets of religion, of the Bible, of the Quran, of other religions, there is a distinction between homosexuality and just being a human being.” The complaints reflect where anti-LGBTQ people who’ve convinced themselves they’re not are and how those who still raise money off of anti-LGBTQ crusades get the attention of their followers. They’re in sync with anti-LGBTQ claims that the goal of “the militant gays” (you know, like some mafia) is to destroy “traditional” American culture or some part thereof. It’s also another example of what members of dominant groups say about any outsiders. White racism doesn’t mind gouging on it’s version of the food, or usurping the music, of the cultures of people of color, but it wants the individual members to act as White as possible. Any person of color knows how white they have to act to get ahead in our society just as LGBTQ people know how acting as straight as possible is a way to keep their heads down. There are so many pockets of America where the finest compliment any group can get is “they fit in well.” And then the complaints begin about a Black History month, a Women’s History month, or a Gay Pride Month. The complainers go so far as claiming that their group ought to have a special month. But the dysfunction of discrimination in terms of how it separates even the discriminators from their own humanity would make such observances little more than attempts to prove that they’re not like whatever they conceive those others to be. Can you imagine a Straight Pride without picturing it as some display trying to celebrate how they’re not whatever “gay” stereotypes they accept? The dominant group in any discrimination is willing to admit that those other people are around (“I don’t care what they do in private” is often the line they recite even though they’re usually obsessed with it.). They just don’t want anything “those people” do to challenge their privileges, especially their sense that they’re the definition of “normal” human beings. They don’t mind “those gays” around as long as they don’t act as if they love being LGBTQ. If they can see them as sick, scared, lonely, failures, and suicidal, that’s okay. It’s best then that LGBTQ people stay in their closets and come out at night so no one can see them or might think they can be proud of, and happy with, who they are. And the history of outright threats experienced by LGBTQ people is reflected in the fact that so much of their nightlife begins late after dark to hide in the shadows. In particular, then, a celebration of LGBTQ Pride contradicts so much in American straight culture, that it’s a healthy threat to many of the assumptions and limitations of conforming to being straight acting, thinking and posturing. Of course, it scares those who’ve bet their life on all the straightness and don’t see how the straight role they’re performing with all its gender rigidity is limiting and hurting them. Homophobia is a key part of that role. And though it takes many forms, the key culturally conditioned basis for all others is the fear of getting close to one’s own gender. That fear is used to promote America’s warrior culture and turn little boys into men who will cheer culturally approved violence particularly against other men. It’s used to encourage competition among women for the limited number of “good men” straight-acting women are supposed to need to save themselves from hopelessness, emptiness, loneliness, and meaninglessness. So, if two heterosexual male friends walk down almost any street in the U.S. they’ll still possibly become victims of some form of gay oppression. That’s not about who they’re in bed with or in love with; it’s about their acting as if they don’t have to fear getting close to their own gender. Homophobia isn’t natural to human beings. And being heterosexual is not the same as living the straight role that takes decades of fear-based conditioning to install in everyone. But it’s still useful to encourage competition and the fighting spirit that will mean that no man’s masculinity will be questioned if he displays anger and violence. Should he show gentleness and the ability to be in touch with other human emotions, he’s a threat to the straight role. That’s the danger of Pride Fests to this whole system as well as other examples of LGBTQ people out and proud as healthy and happy. They challenge what’s actually a house of cards by saying and showing that human beings don’t have to be afraid of closeness with their own genders. And that means that all friendships can be different and close no matter what the gender of their members. It means that heterosexual coupling doesn’t have to be straight-acting – both partners can choose how they want to express their closeness with each other. It means that we’ll have to come up with new ways of selling our products, motivating people, investing in our future, and doing our patriarchal politics. LGBTQ Pride is a radical notion not because it expresses some twisted idea of humanity but because it confronts every human being to question the limitations of the straight role they’ve been scared into, a role that becomes a straight jacket. And that’s what anti-LGBTQ communities fear – all of this means they’ll have to move out of their comfort zones and learn again what it is to be as they were born - full, unlimited human beings. © 2017 Robert N. Minor Other Issues, Books, Resources
Robert N. Minor, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus at the University of Kansas, is author of When Religion Is an Addiction; Scared Straight: Why It’s So Hard to Accept Gay People and Why It’s So Hard to Be Human; and Gay & Healthy in a Sick Society. Contact him at www.FairnessProject.org 
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