Some interesting context from MysteryPollster. What strikes me in the numbers is not so much the slightly waning GOP support for Bush and the intense Democratic opposition, but the shift among Independents. Last October, in response to the question: “Please tell me whether you agree or disagree with president Bush on the issues that matter most to you,” 46 percent of Indies agreed with Bush and 50 percent disagreed: a pretty even split. The numbers now are: 28 percent agree, 63 percent disagree. In the end, the center counts. And Bush has lost it. All hail the genius of Karl Rove.
TOP VICTIMS OF 2005: John Leo has some candidates.
END OF GAY CULTURE WATCH: More response from readers. They all tend to resonate with the point. Email one:
The local gay organization here in Seattle announced last week it is moving our annual Pride parade from Broadway Avenue, the spine of the gay community for 30-some years, to Fourth Avenue in downtown Seattle. Broadway has been dying a slow death for several years now, evidenced by the closing down of businesses, and an exciting literal and symbolic exodus out of the ghetto for countless gay men and lesbians. Broadway and Capitol Hill in general were rites of passage for most of us. We did our time in the bosom of our community, within walking distance of countless bars, meeting rooms, clubs, clinics and bathhouses. But for a number of reasons, Broadway is in decline, and it former inhabitants (graduates, even) are integrating thrillingly into the region at large.
The parade, however, has continued to draw crowds, and the annual post-parade rally at Volunteer Park has grown too big. The new route downtown will culminate in a rally on the Seattle Center grounds, in the shadow of the Space Needle. While Capitol Hill businesses are hollering that community leaders are now abandoning Broadway, and others lament the break from the traditional, I hear a fascinating bit of fear in those cries.
It was easy to grab a sign and show myself in the old Broadway parades. It was home, it was comfortable. It was our turf and those on the sidewalks were our guests. But next summer, we take our team on the road for what feels for some like an away-game. We are facing yet another coming-out – hundreds and hundreds in a single day. I have no doubt the community will turn out, but the event will take on deeper meaning for the intention and thought that will go into it this time. No one is stopping us – any resistance is our own. We are being asked to step out of our comfort zone and show our brave, tender, loving faces to a larger, more diverse crowd lining the sidewalks. It should be a fascinating, exciting day.
The same thing happened in Washington a few years ago. Now, we have pride right on Pennsylvania Avenue. Here’s another straw in the wind:
I’m a psychologist, age 61, in West Hollywood, CA; I’ve been in practice for 30+ years. I’m also a gay man, which I readily acknowledge when asked. Over the past 2-3 years, since insurance companies have been putting their provider panels on the Web, I get many clients who’ve found me themselves, rather than thru referral by telephone intake workers. People choose me because I’m close to their work, their home, or for some other reason of convenience.
As a result, I’ve been getting quite a few 20-something straight men who otherwise would not have been referred to me. Now, most of my straight clients figure out, sooner or later, that I’m gay. What I find interesting is that these young men just don’t care. It’s not that they’re gay friendly – they’re gay indifferent, gay whatever. There might be some curiosity, but for the most part, it’s not a relevant piece of information for them. When I’ve asked a few of them about this attitude, they all point to television as the familiarizing and normalizing influence. That’s it: television. This change is already and unstoppably happening.
Re: “less glamorous…than it now appears” reminds me of the old farmer’s saying: I’m not the man I used to be, and if the truth be told, I never was.
Of course, as I wrote in my essay, none of this means that homophobia is over, that fear and loathing of gays is defunct, or that discrimination and cruelty, especially in many red states and enclaves in blue ones, no longer exist. What it does mean is that change is happening extremely quickly. And it is happening among straight people as much as among gays. In fact, sometimes I wonder if the straight ones aren’t further ahead.
The Dish 