We appreciate allies, but we also want to preserve LGBT-only space
HARDY HABERMAN | Flagging Left
As most of my friends and readers know, I am an active member of the leather community. What you might not know is that there is currently a brouhaha raging in that community about who really belongs or doesn’t belong.
It reminds me of the debates about how many letters to append to LGBT. Right now it’s up to eight with a tongue-twisting “LGBTQQAI” as the latest permutation (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Allies, Intersex).
The letter that has caused so much discussion among leather folk is the “A,” which stands for “allies” in the alphabet soup that is political correctness.
I have a great affinity for allies, and most of them would fall into the category of “straight.”
Straight people, or the “heterosexuals” as some call them, are not a bad group for the most part. Some of my best friends are straight, and to their credit they often march with us in the local Pride parade.
The problem in the leather world with straight people is that not all of them are allies. Many of them fall into the category of what I could call “sexual tourists,” free-thinking (or at least thrill-seeking) heterosexuals who poke about in the world of leather to spice up their love lives.
Now, I am not opposed to people having rich and exciting sex lives. I think that is one of the great gifts our creator endowed us with.
Sex can be fun, if you do it right, and so I have no problem sharing advice and venues with my straight fellows.
Where I do have a problem is when they take over space that was previously the venue of queer leatherfolk or, more often, state their resentment at queer leatherfolk wanting their own spaces.
In the vanilla world this is happening as well. Just look at the gentrification of gayborhoods across the country.
When the San Francisco Eagle Tavern, a landmark of leather history in that city, closed to be remodeled as a straight bar the issue became even clearer.
Right here in Dallas, the Oak Lawn/Cedar Springs gayborhood is in flux as well. New businesses and developments are springing up everywhere.
That in itself is not a bad thing, but when folks move into what is essentially an “entertainment district” they have to expect the kind of lifestyle that goes with the territory.
I have heard complaints about parking on the street — not surprising since parking is at a premium. But for those who are miffed about it, try finding a parking space in Greenwich Village in New York.
Recently, new metrosexual residents of San Francisco’s Castro District have been bemoaning the open display of affection between same-sex couples on the street. Well, when you move into the most famous gay neighborhood in the world, you are going to see that!
Same thing here in Dallas; it comes with the territory.
As in the leather community, there are spaces that have been staked out through years of struggle as “leather-space,” and though we have made our straight friends welcome, they cannot expect us to surrender the space completely.
In our LGBT community as well, we can welcome our allies, but not surrender our identity or our “queer space’ to them.
It is not a matter of hospitality, it is a matter of preserving hard-earned turf.
I understand that many LGBT folks want to fully assimilate into society, and I believe that is not a bad thing when it comes to rights and duties of citizenship in our country.
But I also do not want to blend in so completely that I disappear.
Like many ethnic minorities, I still value the culture I grew up with as a gay man, and I don’t want to see all of it surrendered to make straight allies feel welcome. They are welcome as long as they understand the importance of our space.
It is true in the LGBT community and the leather community, and it is something our allies would be better off understanding.
As a child I used to complain to my mother about Mother’s Day. “When is kids day?” I’d ask her.
And she would smile and answer: “Every day is kids day.”
Now I understand her logic.
In our society, everywhere is “straight space,” so neither we nor our allies should find it unusual at all that we want our own “queer space.”
Hardy Haberman is a longtime local LGBT activist and a member of Stonewall Democrats of Dallas. His blog is at https://dungeondiary.blogspot.com.
The group of letters means nothing to anyone other than the group represented… Its a joke that we have to have so many bloody letters anyway…. If you don’t feel the letter you want is not there then by all means go create your own group and STFU….. That many letters make our whole community a joke…. GLBT is bad enough and then what freaking order so we don’t offend those at the end of the ridiculous string…. Grow up people. Your “a” word is showing (ASS)…… I’m gay I have female gay friends. I have tranny friends that go for the same sex so I guess they are also gay….. Stop being so childish people….
The whole “LGBTQQAI” acronym is inclusiveness run amok. It’s like biddy baseball, where everyone gets a trophy so nobody feels left out. But trying to make everyone feel special sometimes makes nobody feel special. I’ll stick to “LGBT,” thank you.
Allies are a good thing. Allies have been helpful in achieving rights for most minority groups. It takes people who are not part of the minority who are willing to say “I accept you and want to help” to make change.
But that doesn’t mean an ally will be part of that minority group. As someone once said, “You’ll never truly understand if you don’t live it every day.” There are times and places where we need our own kind exclusively. And the rest need to accept it.
Allies want us to be “part of the community,” but we need to be separate as well. The assimilation of “gayborhoods” is an example. The LGBT community created a space for themselves, transformed an area and made it successful. Now, as others move in, that identity is being lost. Some will say “We don’t need our own space-we want to assimilate!” But others will say, “I don’t want to lose my identity and sometimes I need to be with my own people.” We don’t need assimilation, just acceptance. And we need our identity, but we also need to be part of the greater community too.
There is a balance here; let’s find it.
well the second Q and the A seem pointless and the first Q and the I i figured fall under teh umbrella of T while B and L could just fall under G