In more ways than one, heterosexuals use us. This happens in a lot of ways. The most pervasive, of course, is the way left-wing politicians and activists court our votes and donations by promising us “acceptance” and then stabbing us in the back when it comes time to vote on DOMA or gays in the military, as Bill Clinton (among others) did. There’s the sad phenomenon of straight women who have affairs with Lesbians and then throw them over when they get bored and want to go back to men. A lot of Lesbian hearts get broken this way and it’s the reason many Lesbians refuse to date “bisexual” women. More innocuously, there is the declaration of the frustrated heterosexual, “That does it, I’m turning gay!” Because homosexuality lacks the eternal “war between the sexes” aspect, it must look from the outside like gay relationships would be far easier. To actual homosexuals, this pronouncement is endlessly amusing; believe me, it doesn’t make our relationships even slightly easier.

But there’s a more subtle way in which we’re being used, and it’s one that is, when you think about it, very deeply offensive.

When I lived in Austin, Texas a few years ago, there was a local show called “Mr. Sinus Theater 3000″. It was a live version of the TV series its name lampoons. Three local comedians would make wisecracks as a mind-bogglingly bad movie was shown, and do skits at intermission. There was one element in several of their shows that seldom if ever showed up in the TV series, though, and that was the gay jokes. When they ridiculed Masters of the Universe or Star Trek V, among others, several of their jokes were based on the premise that He-Man and Skeletor or Kirk and Spock were lovers. I’m pretty sure all three comedians are straight guys. What’s interesting here is, even ten years earlier, straight guys wouldn’t have joked like that. It just wouldn’t have occurred to them.

I’ve seen other examples of this kind of joke that two people are gay when there’s no real reason to think they are, and when the possibility isn’t even relevant to the venue. One certainly doesn’t need to bring in a gay lovers’ spat to poke fun at a toweringly awful movie like Masters of the Universe. Nor did I see any point in the display of superhero action figures I saw at Borders a couple of years ago; some impish employee had positioned Batman and Superman so that they appeared to be dancing together. (Batman was leading.) There isn’t any point of any kind; just the concept “these two are gay” is joke enough in itself. Ha, ha.

I’m not saying these jokes are homophobic. Indeed, for a while I was wondering if such casual jokes might be a sign of increased tolerance. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that way to me. It seems to me like another angle with which heterosexuals are exploiting us. The act of presenting an allegedly gay couple in a random setting like this is just another way of being “transgressive”.

“Transgression” has become an end in itself. Liberals - and I’m here including people who haven’t made any conscious political alliance but who vaguely believe all the “Bush stole the election, we’re at war in Iraq to seize oil, a leetle bit of socialism would be beneficial” baloney they hear from random sources - get a sort of frisson out of it. In my opinion, it’s the sort of frisson that appeals to people whose tastes and brains are so uncultivated that they seek any kind of stimulation to convince themselves they’re alive. These are the people who require graphic depictions of sex and violence; these are the people who enjoy toilet humor after puberty. “Hey! I feel disgust! I must not be in a coma! Kewl!” It takes the equivalent of an electric shock to make them experience something.

Transgression gives them that jolt. Unfortunately, as the MSM caters to ever lower common denominators, it becomes harder to do. In The 48 Laws of Power Robert Greene points out the perils of this approach: “There will always be people more vulgar than you, and you will easily be replaced the following season by someone younger and worse.” In the 60’s, profanity, nudity, the mention of illegal drugs, or any token disrespect for authority was shocking. Now all those things are commonplace. Been there, done that. To keep having an effect they keep having to do this more intensely. This is why newsgroups today teem with depictions of things that even the seediest porn shops wouldn’t have carried in the 50’s, when nipples were still a big deal. It’s why there’s now actually a recognized fetish for Nazi uniforms; some people get off on breaking taboos, and that’s the only taboo left aside from smoking (which has also become a marketable fetish). This is why the offspring of hippies who chanted, “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids have you killed today?” have to put “KILL BUSH” on their websites.

Graphic depictions of heterosexuality became commonplace when I was a small child. There’s not much kick left in it. There’s still some juice left in homosexuality, though. In addition, most of these transgressors are straight, and so most of them feel a sort of… subconscious irritation, perhaps, or low-grade revulsion, when they contemplate homosexuality. That is, I’m assuming that most heterosexuals feel something comparable to what I feel when I contemplate heterosexual acts. That instinctive revulsion, I believe, fuels the conviction of many people that homosexuality is wrong; they’re mistaking their emotional reaction for a moral one. But for others, it’s a frisson, it gives them a sensation that reassures them that they’re not dead.

Most of the time, when homosexuals are depicted in the overwhelmingly left-wing media, it isn’t because straight liberals are acknowledging homosexuality as the same kind of deep emotional bond as heterosexuals form. They aren’t recognizing us as full, three-dimensional human beings with genuine emotions. It’s a cheap and easy way of being “transgressive”. To them, homosexuality isn’t a type of loving that some people are designed to need by nature; it’s a way of stickin’ it to da man.

Like I said… they’re using us.

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