Re: [wc] Re: Gallaudet

[Eleanor Keyser]

I'm going to second this comment--I almost made a similar point.  As a gay woman I do feel I notice and understand things differently than a straight person.  It always stuns me how little most straight people notice the overwhelming influence of sex, sexuality, and gender roles in our society.  When you don't fit in these categories you not only notice them everywhere, you make fewer assumptions about other people (in general).  Collectively, these assumptions and influences form a hetero-normative bias that is deeply felt by those who don't fit the mold.  I'm including not just gays and lesbians, but bisexuals, transgender people, gender queer people, asexuals, and even people whose sexual lifestyle is considered really "kinky," like BDSMers and polyamorous people in this group.  Some of these people never identify as queer, though I suspect most of them feel somewhat isolated in the same way those who do identify as queer feel isolated. And yes, even though I live in a generally tolerant area and have tons of straight friends, I do feel safer and more comfortable in a queer space.  Queer people have their own spaces not just to meet lovers, but to feel at home.  There is also a whole queer culture with its own politics, decorum, slang, art, and history that I think is far more extensive than straight people realize.  Not to say that straight people can never understand these things, but queer people understand them inherently.

denisesudell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

--- In weingartenchatters@yahoogroups.com, "Ellen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> gay vs. deaf is apples and oranges--I'm not talking about acceptance
> vs. discrimination like is the issue with the gay community, I'm
> talking about being able to to fully participate in society. Gay
> people can fully participate in society, except for getting married.

Uh . . . no, we can't. Or at least I can't.

Being gay gives me an entirely different perspective on society.
Events or activities that straight non-thinking people can fully enjoy
have been known to make me ill.

Take a stray comment somebody may make about a four-year-old girl,
implying that she'll have a wedding someday. I frequently get pissed
off when I hear comments like that. Who's to say that the girl is
straight? Or that even if she is, she'll definitely get married?

Just one very small example -- my overall point being, don't make
statements about subjects you know nothing about.





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