Sinister: Response to rebelstrange's message from a gayboy

[McQuain, Chris]

I saw the 'glad to be gay' message from rebelstrange on 5/21 and thought I'd
drop a brief (?) line. 

I'm one of the gayboys who is in love with B&S (I find Stuart M.
particularly crush-worthy, but they're all so beautiful and I listen to the
Gentle Waves every single day), and I have a theory: This whole 'gay
community' thing, aside from the political belief that we must have legal
recourse to guarantee that we are not fired or denied housing or harassed or
threatened, is for the fucking birds. I have gay friends, I have straight
friends, but I don't care in the least about gay/straight and neither do
they. Maybe it's different for the girls, but for the boys (I'm 23, so maybe
I can only speak about the 20-something boys), there seems to be nothing but
cheapness, tawdriness, anti-love, anti-feelings, false machismo, etc, in our
'scene'. Going to gaybars is sickeningly similar to going to a college
fraternity house where everybody is interested only in preening, asserting
their superiority, and drinking/fucking. It's like a bunch of typically
heterofratboys allowed to go out of control, all the aggression and
'masculinity' entirely out of balance. Some ferocity and aggression have
their place, in girls and in boys, but surely not without some value placed
on love, affection, consideration and kindness? It's a sad day when the most
visible and vocal parts of your local gay (male? again, I can only speak for
my experience) community are intent on erasing their vulnerability, anything
'feminine', from themselves, and I believe that's the day we're living in,
at least here in Portland (Oregon, USA). 

Belle & Sebastian, whether or not any of them are gay or straight (and I'm
sure they're smart and sensitive enough to know that it hardly matters),
have an undeniably genderless/sexless outlook, a sweetly androgynous
worldview that asserts the bright light of its innocuousness out into the
harsh, competitive, mean-spirited world. Belle & Sebastian and all the side
groups emanate something so childlike and comforting, it's really a joy to
listen to it and know that the 'little people' and the 'little things'
aren't insignificant to everybody. 

I'm sure none of us are overly concerned with our genders or sexual
orientations, accepting of all of them. The things that bind us are so much
deeper and more beautiful than gender/sex, which are only issues because of
the cruel and stupid people of the world, anyway. If it's a surprise to
anybody that there are a lot of queer boys who are into Belle & Sebastian,
I'd say it's nothing but the most pleasant kind of surprise, I'm sure there
are throngs of us who aren't obsessed with the macho posturing or the bitchy
competitiveness, who in fact need an antidote. I've decided that the next
guy I date MUST be into Belle & Sebastian, I really believe it says a lot
(not everything, of course, but maybe enough?) about a person. 

And now, softly to sleep.... 

-Chris
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