In a major article for the New Republic, Andrew Sullivan
writes:
It is beginning to dawn on many that the very concept of gay culture may one day disappear altogether. By that, I do not mean that homosexual men and lesbians will not exist-or that they won't create a community of sorts and a culture that sets them in some ways apart. I mean simply that what encompasses gay culture itself will expand into such a diverse set of subcultures that "gayness" alone will cease to tell you very much about any individual. The distinction between gay and straight culture will become so blurred, so fractured, and so intermingled that it may become more helpful not to examine them separately at all.
Gay marriage will be a main driver of this, and Sullivan
comments that while watching a gay couple get married on the
beach,
The heterosexuals in the crowd knew exactly what to do. They waved and cheered and smiled. Then, suddenly, as if learning the habits of a new era, gay bystanders joined in. In an instant, the difference between gay and straight receded again a little.
I don't want to oversimplify; Sullivan sees gay culture as undergoing "integration," not "assimilation," with a multiplicity of roles and identities now availalbe.
But it's clear that this radical but evolutionary reconfiguring
toward the mainstream of American life won't please those whose
brand of radicalism is based on perpetuating marginalization, or
who would strap all gays into their "queer" identity
straitjacket.