Musclehead2, you are one sexy dude in how you xpress yourself. I'm sucking you off in my mind while you wax poetic and loving every minute of it... . Keep talking to me, man!

Some of these posts belong in the "cruising for a straight-acting husband in Middle America" website - there must not be one out there yet, so the posters come here, where I see so many postings for bareback sex I think this must be cruisingforHIV.com. But that's another topic... .

I'm constantly amused by references to "mainstream America," "traditional values," and "special rights for homosexuals" in what passes for political discussions distributed by our media. These are all code words in long-term use by, yes, right-wing homophobes. But no, I don't think all people who describe themselves as politically conservative are homophobic.

America is streaming alright, and that means it's constantly changing, constantly on the move. Are the Hindu Indian communities of Dallas and Silicon Valley mainstream America? Is an eighth generation New Mexican novelist and tarot card reader who can trace her history back to the Spaniards mainstream American, or is it the 19-year-old undocumented kid from across the border who delivers her pizza and loves Eminem? Is any native American anywhere mainstream American? Is a single, 60-year-old divorced accountant and wheelchair-bound Vietnam vet from Columbus OH mainstream America, or is it his circuit boy CPA son with three boyfriends and a girl friend he occasionally plays with? I'm just pulling images out of a hat at random, but it would be interesting to see how some of these posters would fill in the blanks, what I've not said about each character, based on our assumptions and experiences of what is America, or maybe what people think it SHOULD be. Why would we presume to know what ANY of these characters' politics are? And yet any one of them might describe himself or herself as "mainstream" depending on how the question is phrased.

"Traditional values" always means "I hate gays," in my mind, when I hear a person say it. "Mainstream America" might mean "anywhere you find large concentrations of overweight, Baptist heterosexuals who watch a lot of tv, don't earn a lot of money, and resent it," I suppose. "Special rights for homosexuals" ALWAYS means "equal rights for homosexuals" when I hear someone refer to it, because the speaker invariably is NOT in favor of equal rights for gays. So the right wing coined this term, "special rights," because it so neatly plays to the resentment and discontent of the dispossessed, disenfranchised and economically disadvantaged str8 white men who might be a part of that "mainstream America" referred to here. Many of these people and their forebears fought against CIVIL rights for African-Americans for the same reason, because at least being white, like being straight, conferred (and still does in many parts) SPECIAL rights for so long, at least in comparison to whomever could be kept lower on the totem pole.

All I can say is, thank god I live in New York, where there are tons of happy homos of all shapes and sizes, lots of willing dicks to suck, where ultra-capitalists and old-timey labor organizers co-exist (though never in the same co-op), where nelly drag queens (like our Mayor - ugh) rule, where theatre is everywhere, where you can get a great meal at almost any hour, and where Republicans, though rare, are also very nice and tolerant and mostly concerned with lowering taxes, protecting the environment and keeping government small, efficient and out of their lives. The latter, among those I know, are definitely not homophobes. Many are homos!

I have another question, the answers for which might reveal a great deal about our political views as gay, bi and cock-sucking "straight" men (LOL): who would you rather have dinner with, a conservative, str8-acting closet queen with a buff bod and a daring subscription to Out Magazine, or a 60-year-old pot-smoking, out-of-shape Radical Faerie, and WHERE (name a restaurant)?

[This message has been edited by Lex (edited April 08, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Lex (edited April 08, 2001).]