AfterElton Briefs: The gay generation gap, Matt Lucas does Tweedle-twins, and more!

OMG Alice i wonderland pics look amazing, i love tim burton and johnny depp sooooooooo much. All the other cast members are great too, helena bonham carter, matt lucas and anne hathaway! Cant wait for that film now! DAMN YOU SNICKS! NOW I HAVE ANOTHER FILM I HAVE TO WAIT MONTHS FOR! lol

My tongue would catch your tongue...were the world mine :-)

Bjorn Toby Wilde?

Y'know, snicks, I am beginning to think that maybe...just MAYBE...the names these models have are fake.

Just a little hunch.

...that made me giggle.

Though my original thought was Oscar Wilde.

Either way, the boy is hot. 

You too can be saved by the blog! www.savedbytheblog14.blogspot.com 

I may be straight, but I'm not narrow.

I don't know why anyone finds this surprising. The generation gap phenomenon is not unique to the gay community by any stretch of the imagination.

Step back for a moment and think about this past election. There were two standout points that a lot of commentators were making. First, was that we had an electorate in which the majority of voters were either small children during Vietnam or had not even been born yet. This resulted in a diminished interest in things like John McCain's war record on the part of many voters for whom it was a historical footnote, not a defining trait for their generation.

Another point surrounded Barack Obama. Although he is black he was born at the tail end of the Civil Rights movement, and thus didn't particpate in it. Unlike people like Jesse Jackson, Obama has no strong tie to those turbulent times, which is why he didn't speak about them as much as many black people, more accustomed to leaders like Jackson, expected him to.

The generational divide within the gay community is little different. Indeed, younger gays often feel a not so subtle resentment when older gays attempt to act as if they were their parents. Unlike most other groups, each generation of gays is not born from the previous in the literal sense. Because the majority of us come from straight parents we emerge into the time we live in, rather than into an ongoing cultural story that our families experienced as well.

Because of this there is a clear break between generation of gays as opposed to most other groups. Fewer younger gays have been summarily cast out by their families. Often they have childhood friends that they did not lose upon coming out. They entered a social world wherein gays and straights socially mingle more freely than in previous times. So they often have a less solidly-developed sense of "us" versus "them" than many older gays.

For example, I come from a large extended Roman Catholic family. Virtually all the cousins of my generation are still practicing Catholics, but they also tend to buck Church doctrine on matters like their support for same-sex marriage. So to me certain tendencies that are often knee-jerk in older gays, such as open hostility to all religion or to people who practice religions, don't make sense. Why would I insult my pro-gay cousins over their belief in God (especially since I believe in Him too) when they actually support my quest for equal rights?

So it's not just that younger gays are different from older ones, the entire culture in which they live is different, and that inevitably changes their viewpoint. If you look at the surveys for example, support for same-sex marriage rights is substantially higher among younger voters than it is among older ones. A gay or lesbian person in their 20's is far more likely to be surrounded by heterosexual age peers who support their equality. To them, it's older people that are the ones trying to hold them down.

That pop culture icons are so important in gay culture doesn't help, simply because, as in straight society, younger people rarely adore the same icons as their elders. Judy, Barbara and Liza may be a big deal to some guys. But to younger gays it's no different than when a straight parent gushes about Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley or Buddy Holly.  Why it is assumed that just because the younger gay is gay that they would share the same icons is unknown given that straights certainly don't operate that way?

Thus the generational divide is often a yawning chasm.  We're united by our sexual orientation but by little else. The notion of a monolithic "gay community" is more than a little off, and we should know that. There has, for example, always been a huge divide between gay men and lesbians. We cooperate on political matters for the most part. But very often share little else in common.

It is a fascinating subject.