by Brian McNaught

Let's play. "What If." I played recently with

Troy Perry, the reverend

founder of the Metropolitan Community Church and also with Tim Sweeney, the engaging Executive Director of Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. The dialogue was fascinating.

What if the political climate in the United. States became so reactionary that an ugly public scandal involving gay people engendered a massive citizen outcry for eliminating the "homosexual menace"? In other words, what if gay men and lesbians were labeled a "public enemy" and were put into protective custody "for their own good." Maybe it wouldn't be that dramatic. Maybe it would only involve the banning of books by known homosexuals, the black listing of gay artists, the total elimination of known homosexuals from "sensitive" employment positions, the regulation of selling homes and renting apartments to of the persons gender, the sentencing of gay law breakers to mental institutions, the tacit approval of public "queer bashings." What if all of the advances we have made suddenly are eliminated?

same

Would we run? Would we fight? Would we go silently back into our closets? Would our straight liberal friends and our closeted sisters protest?

brothers and

Perhaps the scenario and the questions seem as silly as the government's 34 ISSUE 85

PERSPECTIVE

evacuation plans in the event of nuclear war. Perhaps even raising the question will be labeled as "alarmist" and the seeds of a self-fulfilling prophecy. But, what if?

Don Clark, in his popular book, Living Gay, didn't think it too silly to advise his readers to learn a second language and to secure a passport, just in case. I was shocked and

irritated by his suggestion but I have subsequently I given it serious thought. Jimmy Carter was President then. The economy was better based. The ERA still had a chance and the Moral Majority hadn't won any major victories. Book burnings and bannings didn't concern many librarians then and Ed Asner was still the sweetheart of the country. Washington D.C. witchhunts then concentrated on bribery and not sexual activity with male pages. The Family Protection Act was only a festering in Mr. Laxalt and Mr. Jepsen's bowels and Oklahoma hadn't passed legislation forbidding gay people from teaching. The American Psychiatric Association's support of gay normalcy had little significant opposition and there, were no studies showing

the pervasive immune deficiency of urban gay. males. I was an author and lecturer fairly removed from the growing antagonism in middle America and not privy to the dynamics of big time political decision making. You could count on the power of the federal government to regulate state behavior and the Supreme Court was more a guardian of

Brian McNaught

A Disturbed Peace

individual rights.

What if more conservatives are sent to Congress this November? What if Ronald Reagen elected with the mandate to go forward with his conservative social

is re-

programs? Worse yet, what if the reactionary Right is successful in replacing Reagan with a conservative more loyal to their program? What if the voices of organized religion continue to be mute on anti-gay violence and safely vocal on the violence against people who live in other countries? What if more liberals are replaced by more conservatives in the courts? What if a Republican government succeeds in unto

leashing the states implement their own views of the Constitution? What if the economy gets worse, unemployment

skyrockets and gay people are highlighted as an economically privileged class? What if, into this scene, emerged another Juan Corona or John Gacey whose sickness precipitates another series of mass murders of America's male innocents?

What if all of that happens? What would you do? What would I do?

On a recent three hour flight south to address a gay and lesbian group on the subject of "community," I read an article on the gays of the pink triangle in Nazi Germany. According to the author, gay men had a particularly low survival rate in concentration camps. The problem was not only that gay inmates were frequently given the hardest work assignments and treated brutally by the SS, but that they didn't hang together while incarcerated and when they were released or freed, they were avoided by family. and friends who feared being implicated.

With greater frequency, gay and lesbian observers of our movement are suggesting that there is very little which holds us together today. We are not a "community" they say, but rather a "culture." We have been denied a history. We come from different religious perspectives. Notwithstanding quiche, yogurt and Perrier, we have no food links. Unlike blacks, Hispanics and Jews, we have no family ties in times of stress nor have we learned from an early age how to cope with rejection. We

have no song to sing for moral support nor a special language which binds us. Even that which most connects us our sexual appetites and our oppression are varied.

Complicating matters more is the legacy of self hate passed on to us by ignorant heterosexuals and our rejection of gay leadership. The two are intimately related.

O Pretty dismal scene, isn't it? It is especially unsettling when it comes from a man who has concentrated his efforts over: the last eight years to build self-esteem in the gay and lesbian community. My intention here is the same. The approach is merely different.

There are times when we need to be frightened out of our complacency. There are times when we need to carefully examine the shifting winds of the political climate so that

we can strategize our action. There are times when we need to examine our behavior and our relationship to one another to see if they are creative or destructive.

What makes us uniquely beautiful as gay men and lesbians? What special gifts are we offering to society and to one another? How involved are we in our future? How much responsibility are we taking for the future of those who follow us? How do we handle conflict with

one another and could we be more community oriented? When push comes to shove, who do we have in the world beyond one another? Who else cares? If it's only us, how can we collectively increase the chances of our survival? What would we do?

The thoughts are worth playing with.

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