But for most of my life, being gay was not about the hour before bedtime. . You have to be gay 24/7.
Take a typical day in 1989, when I was living in West Hollywood, working two part-time jobs and taking classes at USC:
7:00 am: Get up. Breakfast.
8:00 am: Head to work. Turn on the car radio: "Senator suggests concentration camps for AIDS victims." Turn off the car radio.
Coworker: "What did you do this weekend?"
You: "Oh, we went...I mean...I went to...a festival..."
9:45 am: Overhear the boss: "He's a good family man, he'll be perfect for the job."
10:00 am: The boss comes out of her office. "Boomer, you should find a nice girl and settle down."
11:00 am: Walking toward the break room, pass two guys: "Hey, Boomer, settle a bet. Which is hotter, Michelle Pfeiffer or Meg Ryan?"
1:00 pm: Head to USC. Pass a billboard with a smiling happy heterosexual family, mom, dad, teenage daughter, preteen daughter, all blond.
2:00 pm. Class in Modern Drama. You're discussing the Tom Stoppard play Rosencrantz and Guildersterin are Dead. Mention that there's a gay subtext between the two guys.
Girl: I don't think this play is about..(pause, lowered voice)...homosexuality.
Guy: Shakespearean fags! (flashes a limp wrist).
Professor: Keep it clean!
3:30 pm: Head to the gym.
4:00 pm: Be careful -- don't stare, especially in the locker room.
4:30 pm: Overheard: "Didn't they elect one in Massachusetts? Barney Fag?"
5:00 pm: Stop at the florist on the way home, pick up flowers.
Florist: "Who's the lucky lady?"
Hostess: Will anyone else be joining you? No. But she seats us at a table for four anyway.
The waitress keeps ignoring you. Is it because she thinks you are gay?
8:00 pm: Back home, time to watch tv.
21 Jump Street: Cop going undercover in a high school falls in love.
9:00 pm: Time for sex, which is a crime in 16 states.
9 AM: "Oh, you have an office job. That must be nice. Edit: Oh, you have a job. That must be nice." -everyone born after 1980 And that problem existed long before Stupid. (Seriously, I've seen a bunch of Demokarens who think racism was dealt with some time in the 70s and 80s, or especially the 90s, and only came back in 2016, and really think the same for all America's problems. Daily Kos is the worst, by the way.) You see the beginnings of it in the Pets.com meltdown of 2000.
ReplyDelete4 PM: Still have, um, etiquette for urinals and showers, though at least when I was younger, it was quickly forgotten once the facilities got crowded.
5 PM: "Annex: You can afford flowers. That must be nice."
6 PM: "Annex: You can afford a restaurant. Must be nice." (Is it weird I have no compassion for Barney Frank? Willing collaborator in my generation's problems.)
8 PM: Creepy af. Also, how do you go undercover as a high school student?
9 PM: And Still a crime in many countries, but you can't even bring that up among academics because of some condescending, orientalist nonsense.
The Jump Street guys never actually dated the high school students.
DeleteI may have had a tiny bit of middle class privilege, but I was barely making enough to live on with two part-time jobs and student loans.
ReplyDeleteOh -The memories you brought back, Boomer... And you clearly touched a nerve or two. ;) As long as we're talking about privilege, how about straight privilege, which I think was your point? The laws may have gotten better in the last thirty years, but the straight privilege is alive and well and hanging out with his white, male, middle-class friends. But he is often the most powerful member of the group. When my straight facade evaporated, my white, male, middle-class privilege was never enough to save me...
ReplyDeleteRIght, heterosexual privilege, the ability to be completely open about your desires, interests, and relationships without worrying about being yelled at, beat up, told that you're going to hell,fired, disowned, or forced into a long conversation about which of you is the girl.
DeleteTrue, but these things don't exist in a vacuum. This is just my generation bitching about yours, where we have PhDs resorting to prostitution and living in vans.
DeleteSorry to say, but PhDs living in vans is not new, or exclusive, to your generation, Anonymous. Degrees aren't guarantees, and not all degrees are created equally. Some fields are crowded, and some have no growth potential at all. Advanced degrees in mathematics or sciences are more likely to yield a decent career path than degrees in literature and classics. The freedom to pursue studies you are interested in, without worrying about future job prospects, is another (economic) privilege that some have and others do not.
ReplyDeleteEconomic disparity in America is not Boomer's fault -Nor is it his generation's. This gap has been widening for generations, and blame should go to those in power at the top, rather than people of a certain generation. Unless Boomer has lied about every detail of his background, family, childhood, experience, etc. he has never been in a position of political or economic power sufficient to shape our present-day problems. :)