The Teeth Grin Proudly for a "Glee" showstopper, Junior Politico James Duke Mason and More!

Don’t be scared. I’ve done this before.
– Lady Gaga, “Teeth”

Postcards From the Edge

Happy (belated) first ever Harvey Milk Day everyone! And didn’t it feel a little like gay Christmas this week, when on Tuesday, CNN reported that 8 out of 10 Americans support the repeal of the heinous-as-a-floral-caftan “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy? With the U.S. Congress looking to act soon, seemingly all lights are coming up green in terms of plucking this little thorn from our collective hides.

I suppose we’re done, then! [Dusts hands off] Let’s pack up shop. No more commentary on gay issues or participation necessary.

Sigh… If only it were just about chopping the head off that particular monster. But the problems facing us are far more multifarious than that. It turns out the monster has various heads and a whole mess of typing hands. And some are lurking within our community itself.

For instance - you only need take a squiz at any gay forum or dating site to see the words “NO QUEENS” scribbled ubiquitously as if on a North Ireland street corner. The hate runs deep, mes amis.

So whilst the mainstream gets ready to trash laws based on stereotypical perceptions, we as a community remain very much entranced by the specter of the stereotype. It makes characters unreal, we bitch. It confines our participation in films and TV series, we moan. Therefore, we reason, the stereotype makes for an ‘inutile’ or unworthy individual.

As a community we talk much about the negative influence of stereotypes, but what about the negative influence of de-stereotyping; of invalidating the lives, personas and choices of people that happen to fall into these categories?

It’s a simple lesson, but the more comfortable we get and the more ‘normalized’ our experiences become, the less it seems to matter. We’re in, we think. Now we can relax!

Not on my watch! Triumphant Captain America/Roger Ramjet chords play

Some troglodytes I know often defensively remark that I’m “making a career out of being gay.” This strikes me as a curious perspective, especially when it’s gay individuals that evince it.

As if sports journalists aren’t making careers out of their identity markers, or as if some wingnut Republicans aren’t proudly making careers out of their crazy. And why the rub for doing so? I say proudly that it’s the Republicans and the other crazies and, yes, the gays that make this mad theater that is life.

The stereotype shouldn’t be the thing we fearfully shape ourselves away from. In fact, it’s that very sort of restriction from which we should continue to rebel. The American legislature is making steps on “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and saying it’s okay to be gay, and that’s fabbo. But the lesson isn’t total if we don’t remember the sort of universality that Harvey Milk stood for: that it’s okay to be any sort of gay.

So, kid, take a walk on the wild side. And remember it’s just as much free terrain as the conventional and the quiet, and here’s the spotlight to prove it:

• Queer as F**k – A new Australia-based web series about gay men's sexual health. Rude, crude and cringe-worthily true, it’s the type of thing that will give you a hearty giggle only when and if you’ve learned to let go of the great ‘queeny’ demon that haunts the collective gay man’s unconscious.

The cast of Queer as F**k

Although its ‘AIDS IS BAD, WEAR A DAMN CONDOM!’ message is railroaded home with the force of a jet engine, it is nevertheless pretty uncompromising in its language and themes. It reminds me of the days when gay men would speak Polari and abide by the handkerchief rule, only now they’re speaking English and using words instead of handkerchiefs. Go figure, eh? Nevertheless, it’s a nod to a culture that’s rapidly becoming extinct.

And that’s the thing a lot of us fail to realise: just as we are now as a society beginning to really refute the validity of stereotypes as a binding concept, we are finally free to participate in a formerly ‘stereotypical’ culture that is no longer stigmatized, and without fear of being essentialized.