On a sort-of-related subject, there are really are some unfortunate consequences for heterosexual men to being stuck in a society at the halfway point between intolerance of gays and actual equality.
In a lot of places in the developing world that are still at or close to the we-kill-people-for-being-gay stage, the (ridiculous) common wisdom is that since homosexuality is abnormal, there are no homosexuals (I have actually heard immigrants from parts of Africa claim that there are no homosexuals where they are from).
As a consequence of “nobody here is gay”, straight men can hug, hold hands, share a bed (literally—not a sex euphemism here), etc. without having their masculinity or sexual orientation challenged.
I think Western society would be better off if we could do that here too. I’m not willing to sacrifice the utility of gay people’s lives for it, however, so I see it as a reason to push faster for full LGBT acceptance.
I strongly suspect that one of the other consequences of the “there are no homosexuals” social norm in such cultures is that under certain circumstances same-sex pairs can also have sex with one another without having their sexual orientation “challenged.” (Similar things were true of opposite-sex pairs in cultures with the “there is no extramarital sex” cultural norm… e.g., bundling.)
But I agree with you that as long as queer visibility is noticeably higher than queer acceptability, there’s a class of previously acceptable behaviors that become less acceptable (e.g., certain expressions of affection), and I agree with you that that’s unfortunate, and I endorse closing that gap.
Further benefit of full queer acceptance: people of different genders could also hug, hold hands and share beds without summoning a chorus of “He liiiiikes her”.
Not necessarily. I went to college in a very queer-accepting social context, and the general assumption was that any couple, or group, that shared a bed was having sex (for some unspecified value of “sex”) regardless of their stated preferences. And rather a lot of good-natured teasing took place in consequence.
I’m really much more concerned with assault and murder than I am with teasing, though.
On a sort-of-related subject, there are really are some unfortunate consequences for heterosexual men to being stuck in a society at the halfway point between intolerance of gays and actual equality.
In a lot of places in the developing world that are still at or close to the we-kill-people-for-being-gay stage, the (ridiculous) common wisdom is that since homosexuality is abnormal, there are no homosexuals (I have actually heard immigrants from parts of Africa claim that there are no homosexuals where they are from).
As a consequence of “nobody here is gay”, straight men can hug, hold hands, share a bed (literally—not a sex euphemism here), etc. without having their masculinity or sexual orientation challenged.
I think Western society would be better off if we could do that here too. I’m not willing to sacrifice the utility of gay people’s lives for it, however, so I see it as a reason to push faster for full LGBT acceptance.
I strongly suspect that one of the other consequences of the “there are no homosexuals” social norm in such cultures is that under certain circumstances same-sex pairs can also have sex with one another without having their sexual orientation “challenged.” (Similar things were true of opposite-sex pairs in cultures with the “there is no extramarital sex” cultural norm… e.g., bundling.)
But I agree with you that as long as queer visibility is noticeably higher than queer acceptability, there’s a class of previously acceptable behaviors that become less acceptable (e.g., certain expressions of affection), and I agree with you that that’s unfortunate, and I endorse closing that gap.
Further benefit of full queer acceptance: people of different genders could also hug, hold hands and share beds without summoning a chorus of “He liiiiikes her”.
Why would that follow? I don’t think it would.
Not necessarily. I went to college in a very queer-accepting social context, and the general assumption was that any couple, or group, that shared a bed was having sex (for some unspecified value of “sex”) regardless of their stated preferences. And rather a lot of good-natured teasing took place in consequence.
I’m really much more concerned with assault and murder than I am with teasing, though.