dear lord.

every time someone makes genuine, non-ironic use of the word "heteronormative", it just rubs me the wrong way. these are the same people that bristle when they hear things like, "hey, you know... gay and straight people... we're all kind of the same." they positively get ornery, like a gay person doesn't have the right to be a normal person walking down the street. and these people are gay themselves!

*sigh*

i don't get it. what's the problem with building bridges with similarities? why the cynicism? why the weird stand-offish behavior? maybe i'm just too young to have experienced the 1960s, the 1970s

maybe people get set in their ways. i noticed that some of my older gay law professors almost recoiled when there was so much of an emphasis put on same-sex marriage.

"why do you want to be institutionalized?"

"i prefer being an outlaw."

"oh GOOOOOOOD. it's that 'marriage thing' again. if i wanted to be institutionalized, i'd check myself into bellevue."

the younger ones were more receptive and gung-ho about the idea, and the gay law students were all pretty much unanimous in their support. i guess when you've spent most of your life as a gay person when the gay identity revolved around rebellion, being an outsider, and "rejecting" a culture that has rejected you by creating a subculture, one just tends to get comfortable in that identity. back in the 1960s, 1970s, the 1980s, acceptance was damn near impossible. furthermore, i don't buy the idea that you can "reject" a culture that doesn't accept you. that's like saying "i broke up with him!" when you were dumped. to "reject" something requires you to have been made an offer that you summarily turn down. saying "well screw you too!" when you've been rejected is a better alternative than crying in a corner, but isn't an even better alternative working for acceptance? you know, so you're not harrassed or bothered, and people leave you alone, yet you can share in all the things that everyone else shares in (or, if you really want to be a rebel, have the option to truly reject the offer to share in such institutions)?

because if you don't have that option, and you say "hell, i'm okay with that. i don't want it anyway!" you're not being a rebel. in fact, you're being complacent.

it's 2007. stop using the word "heteronormative." and for the record, we are just like everyone else. nyah nyah! the sooner people recognize it, the better.

this post was longer than anticipated.