Finding the "Unity" in Community
28 August 2009, 8:00 am
This post was submitted by michael

http://thenewgay.net/2009/08/finding-the-unity-in-community.html

We gay men and women and trans-folk aren't born into our community.  We have to go seek it out.   We don't have GLBTQ parents teaching us the history of our people.  We don't hear about Stonewall at sermons during Sunday mass.  We don't discuss the ongoing oppression of our people at neighborhood rallies or block-parties attended by our extended families.  In order to learn about our people and our history, we have to go out and seek this knowledge.  But first we need to realize that we are different ourselves from the community we are born into, which can take years if it even happens at all.

Just a hunch I have, nothing more at this time...

But it seems that those of us who tend to embrace a progressive worldview can embrace a view of unity in the LGBT community -- that there is good to be gained by including all who are the many combinations and permutations of the flavours of sexual orientation and gender identity--

--while those who tend to embrace a conservative worldview will endorse a keep-to-our-own-kind, I-got-mine-jack, and we-have-nothing-in-common-with-you ideology.

This is not a binary, but a spectrum, but with sizable clusters near the poles and in-betweeners thinly distributed through the midpoints.

And the groupings I've mentioned will also share other correlations with either progressives (for single-payer health, for gun control, for social programs and protections for minorities,) or the conservatives (for freedom of gun ownership, strong defense, against social programs, for the 'opportunity to fail', etc).

Again, this is true for the groups -- individuals have more wiggle room.

Anyway, my 44 cents (two 1913 cents, adjusted for inflation...)

Karen