itās interesting learning which homophobic ideas are confusing and unfamiliar to the next generation. for example, every once in a while iāll see a post going around expressing tittering surprise at someoneās claim that gay men have hundreds of sexual partners in their lifetimes. while these posts often have a snappy comeback attached, they send a shiver down my spine because i remember when those claims were common, when youād see them on the news or read them in your study bible. and they were deployed with a specific purpose ā to convince you not just that gay men were disgusting and pathological, but that they deserved to die from AIDS. i saw another post laughing at the outlandish idea that gay men eroticize and worship death, but that too was a standard line, part and parcel of this propaganda with the goal of dehumanizing gay men as they died by the thousands with little intervention from mainstream society.
which is not to say that not knowing this is your fault, or that i donāt understand. iāll never forget sitting in a classroom with my high school gsa, all five of us, watching a documentary on depictions of gay and bi people in media (off the straight and narrowĀ [pdf transcript] ā a worthwhile watch if your school library has it) when the narrator mentioned āthe stereotype of the gay psycho killer.ā we burst into giggles ā how ridiculous! ā then turned to our gay faculty advisors and saw their pale, pained faces as they told usĀ āno, really. that was realā and we realized that what weād been laughing at was the stuff of their lives.
itās moving and inspiring to see a new generation of kids growing up without encountering these ideas. itās a good thing. but at the same time, we have to pass on the knowledge of this pain, so weāre not caught unawares when those who hate us come back with the oldest tricks in the book.
