aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Relics of a gay ol’ time that should be long gone

Richard Kim on the passion of Jim McGreevey in Salon:

This is stomach-turning stuff, not in the least because McGreevey clearly still gets off on how far he was able to push the boundaries of the closet. At the height of his career it spanned the whole state. Openly gay aides (including his chief of staff and his communications director), Republican opponents, radio shock jocks, state troopers assigned to his protection and snoopy newspaper reporters, who cheekily took to describing Cipel as a “sailor” and a “poet” (he was in the Israeli Defense Forces and had written a few verses as a child), all knew or suspected. If he did not deceive them all, he at least beguiled and intimidated them into silence for almost the entirety of his first and only term.

Throughout his account McGreevey forces an analogy between life in the closet and life in politics. But because the inevitable conclusion—that he was a closeted homosexual because he coveted power—is both contemptible and predictable, he effects a curious reversal: He took refuge in power because he was a closeted homosexual.

The closet is a poisonous destructive place; a damaging shame-based relic that can only lead to bad things. It is not a benign place; it’s an unhealthy place that fosters unhealthy behavior. It should be eliminated and gay leaders should understand that and say so.

Speaking of which, last week in SoVo, Wayne Beson looked at the big lie about gay men and sex. I’m right there with him in his description of a “gulf between the men who oink and boink and those who bed and wed.” George Michael puts in an appearance as the former:

THIS BATTLE OF the male brain is now playing itself out in gay society after paparazzi ambushed pop star George Michael coming out of the bushes following a supposed sexcapade with a pot-bellied peasant.

Michael, for his part, implied that his behavior was a result of entrenched gay customs. “Are you gay?” he asked the paparazzi, “No? Then fuck off. This is my culture.”

That may have been true in the 1970s, when gay culture had been set up to accommodate married men on the sly. Back in those days, bathhouses were hugely popular and the gay bars had blackened out windows, creating a virtual cocktail-serving closet. Many of the patrons had to have sex away from home to keep the secret from an unsuspecting wife and kids.

Of course, there was a portion of men who did have options - just as Michael does today - but who enjoyed unfettered promiscuity for the thrill.

With time, the ease with which people could come out, combined with the fear of contracting HIV, sharply curtailed the carnal carnival the gay subculture once represented.

The whole notion that gay men are more libidinous than straight men is a canard pushed by right wing fanatics in an effort to deny homosexuals basic rights. Indeed, one of the most guarded secrets of gay life is that a good portion of homosexuals are as undersexed as their straight counterparts.

LATER: McGreevey on The Daily Show, unintersting. Jason Jones on the hack local TV reporter in Ohio, brilliant satire. I’ll post it as soon as it’s available.