Alternet has republished a story about Gay Shame, a growing rebellion within the LGBT community, against assimilating so completely with the larger culture that we risk condoning injustice with our silence. This is an issue I have had to reckon with ever since I saw a banner, years ago, with a naked, buff man tastefully covered in a billowing rainbow-colored gauze, ending with a Miller Lite logo. While Miller might not be quite as bad as other corporate sponsors of gay pride events, the impression was made that the LGBT community was willing to prostitute itself in the form of product endorsements for cash.
Politics in LGBT circles have become increasingly watered down, lest people and companies become offended, and too many queer folk turn a blind eye to real issues as a result. But we cannot expect acceptance to come from being non-offensive--there will always be those offended, sometimes to a violent degree, by who and what we are as gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgendered, intersexed, leatherfolk, and the myriad other sexual and genderal minorities of humanity. Acceptance ultimately must come from dignity coupled with an unwillingness to be trod upon. We must not allow others to sell the soul of the LGBT world for temporary queer chic.
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