A 'Gay Identity and Gay Culture', Really....in 2016? PART 2

The (Northern Hemisphere) Pride season is over and September is upon us.  The Julian calendar is a strange beast, its ninth month beginning with Sept (from the Latin for seven), the tenth with Oct (from the Latin for eight) and so on for November and December.  All down to our ancestors' intransigence when, following Julius Caesar extending the original Roman calendar by two months and naming the new version after himself, the people refused repeated attempts to change the names of the last four months.  That's people for you!  Meanwhile, back at our ever flexible and responsive Blog....

(Please Note - photos/videos are taken from public sites and assumed to be open source.  I do not hold the copyrights and, if anyone does and wishes the picture removed, just advise me and I shall take the photo down.  The use of a photo does not presume anything regarding the sexuality of the subject)

You will recall (if a returning reader - for which many thanks) that I committed this post to mooting the degree to which my claims for a 'gay identity' and a 'gay culture' sustain in the seemingly liberated world of 2016.  To discuss whether the needs that led to their natural evolution remain.

Well, in the first place, congratulations if you do reside in a part of the world you perceive to be liberated in its position on LGBT rights because, as you will read below, that happy situation is by no means global!  I should then congratulate you a second time (the weekend is coming and the blood has obviously gone to my head) if you, personally, hold a liberated view vis á vis LGBT equality where ever you live because, as you will again read below, many do not; irrespective of their country's legislative/legal stance.  In light of the above, I believe that there most certainly remains a need for the sort of gay 'safe havens' that led to the de facto growth of what I have termed gay identity and a gay culture, as I explain below, but I shall go on to ponder whether, in fact, gay villages, gay identity and gay culture are truly alive and well and fabulous in 2016.

To begin, allow me to address the sobering, sad reality of the state of LGBT equality world wide.  My figures are taken from a detailed review of same that was published by The Washington Post in June of this year; begging your forgiveness for a series of figures, but there really is no other way of doing it.  Kicking off at the hopeful end of the spectrum, same sex marriage is legal in (only) 22 countries around the world; a number of those countries having been 'forced' into that stance by their Supreme Courts, in the face of insufficient political/popular support for equality.  Same sex Civil Partnerships are recognised in just 13 countries.

The picture then darkens with homosexuality still illegal in 65 countries and punishable by death in 10 (or arguably 12 countries), those being:  Afghanistan; Iran; Nigeria; Qatar; Saudi Arabia; Somalia; Sudan; Yemen; Mauritania, the UAE (though some dispute the penalty would be upheld if there was proof that the sexual act was consensual); Pakistan (though many contend that the death penalty would no longer be imposed, in reality) and Brunei (where stoning to death for homosexuality became law in 2014, but has yet to be handed down as an actual sentence).  I note that many media and entertainment stars and a few global business tycoons have boycotted the excellent Dorchester Hotel in London and the Dorchester Collection chain of luxury hotels since 2014 as a protest against the adoption of the death penalty in Brunei, because they are owned by the Sultan; indeed, it's why I no longer stay at the Dorchester when in London (hahaha....would love to be in a position to make such a protest!).

So, to lift my eyes away from too Northern Hemisphere/'Western' (in the political sense) a perspective, many parts of the world have not yet even developed to the point where gay venues and villages may be safely established.  Accepting that gay identity and culture grew out of needs, both physical and emotional, those needs scream out to national and world leaders but their pleas fall on often hostile or simply deaf ears. That said, some courageous LGBT activists from such countries have spoken through western news outlets and espoused a yearning to be allowed to be who they are and live just the sort of lifestyle I outlined in the previous post....seemingly sustaining the concept of a gay culture that binds us together across borders and continents.  I shall, of course, return to such issues in future posts....there is, truly, so much work still to be done.

Next, in saying their is so much work still to be done, that pertains in almost all countries, regardless of their official/legislative stance on LGBT rights.  If I take Great Britain as a case study, it is a world leader in LGBT rights and many might perceive that the needs that gave rise to gay identity and a gay culture have now been met within the general population, that gays are accepted and able to be absorbed into the wider community and culture.  That is not the case.  Britain is, indeed, a leader in LGBT equality legislation but there is a huge gulf between Parliament and reality street level reality.

Taking figures from such as the British Crime Survey, academic studies and researches undertaken for respected gay rights groups the real world reality has shocked many of my friends, who thought the days of homophobia long gone.

In Britain, where gay men and women can marry, serve openly in the armed forces etc one study reports that 750,00 young people experienced homophobic bullying in 2015, while another suggests that 55% of LGB pupils in schools experienced direct bullying and 96% heard homophobic language used in a derogatory sense (eg "poof", "leza" etc).  Research conducted for the excellent Terrence Higgins Trust suggests that 24% of homeless youths in Britain are LGB and, in 2015, 69% of them had experienced familial rejection, abuse and violence.  The study also showed that LGB homeless youth were significantly more likely to suffer targeted violence and sexual exploitation.  Turning from just the youth community, reports suggest that 16.5% of LGB people have experienced one or more homophobic/biphobic hate crime incident during the last three years while 20% of LGB employees experienced verbal bullying during the last five years.  Figures from 2013 indicate that about 26% of the LGB community "alter their behaviour" to hide their sexuality and avoid being victims of hate crimes.  Looking across the ocean, figures collated by Infographicworld.com suggest that 40% of "gay Americans" (ie of gays in the USA, not Americans, which would include all countries on the American continent) had been rejected by family or close friends while 58% had been subjected to anti-gay slurs or jokes.

So, the idea that all is gorgeous in the garden and that the needs that fed the establishment of a gay identity and gay culture could now be met within the day to day life of the broader population appears seriously and sadly flawed.  A great deal or work remains to be done to increase understanding and achieve genuine, real world acceptance of LGBT people, even in socially advanced countries such as Britain....and that's before we get to the issue of the homophobia of mainstream religious groups such as (the majority of) Christians and Muslims.

My penultimate point is that the logical consequence of the above should be to ensure that gay identity, gay culture is thriving and, in the more socially advanced countries of Europe and one or two others, is ever more open under the protection of increased legal rights.  Logic is rarely a sound basis for predicting human behaviour, however, and I am reminded of the old saying, "nowt so queer as folk" and, in this case, that appears to be wholly apposite.  Just when one might expect gay villages and communities to be strengthening, to be responding to the continuing needs that are implicit in the statistics above while also exploiting their increased equality and freedoms (where they pertain)....the opposite appears to be the case.  Staying in GB, we find a 'perfect storm' leading to LGBT bars closing across the country and gay 'villages' being wiped out.  At a time when property values have tempted many venue owners to sell bars to developers, significant numbers of gays appear to have opted to mask their true identity, homosexuality, with the cloak of anonymity provided by the world wide web and its gay 'dating' (hook up) sites.  This development seems counter intuitive in the wake of increased legal equality and protection but, when put in context of the street level realities related above it may be more readily understood.

To close, what is Walters' prognosis for the claimed gay culture and the gay communities/villages that led to its evolution?  Is the obvious and right end state of increased acceptance and full equality absorption into mainstream culture and the evaporation of 'gay culture'; as the needs that led to the latter are readily met without specifically gay social/entertainment locales?

For my part, I believe that the reality of acceptance or, palpably from the discussion above, refusal of so many to accept us in the real world means that the needs which spawned gay culture will not be met withing mainstream communities in the near future.  I imagine that I would meet with upset and even outrage if I cruised guys in a 'straight' bar and attempted to pick one up, more often than I would be met with a polite "no thanks".  I also contend that gay men have a genuinely different identity and shared social behaviours from straight men; straight men, that is, as shaped or constrained by modern straight society.  The 'gay' cultural peculiarities I outlined in the previous post have often been described by straight male friends as "guys without the girls to hold them back"....which perhaps brings to mind the quote attributed to Billy Crystal, that "women need a reason to have sex, men just need a place", echoing the different methodologies naturalists ascribe to males and females of various animal species to perpetuating their genes.   Any positive prognosis for gay communities and gay culture will be turned on its head, however, if gay men continue to eschew the public, out domain for the (often closeted) anonymity of the web....which, I rather fear, seems the most likely future.

Please note, though, that none of the above is to say that gay men or women cannot easily fit the social norms, cultural norms of standard/majority/straight society.  Indeed, I know a number who have done so readily....in each case, after adopting a child or children.

...and that's it for today!  If you've dropped in and stayed with the post to its conclusion, a huge thanks and either e-hugs to you or manly embrace; as appropriate!  I am most genuinely grateful.

Though it's a week away, the next post may either examine 'coming out' (why, what it means and what may be the results), or, may take you on a Saturday night out in London's Soho and beyond, as enjoyed by yours truly prior to finding my wonderful man and becoming deliriously happily married!  Both are the subjects of questions asked of me via email and FB messenger and each will be more chatty and anecdotal than this post has necessarily been.....in fact, because of the serious nature of this post, I shall go for the lighter 'night out in Soho and beyond' next week!  See you next week, I hope.  Have a fabulous weekend.