Tale of Two Cities

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I’m generally no fan of the way too smug Jon Stewart and his Daily Show, but this segment about gay life in San Francisco vs. Minneapolis actually hits on a real truth about how most of us live vs. what some still like to promote as gay identity.

9 Comments for “Tale of Two Cities”

  1. posted by Jorge on

    “Well, we get up at 6AM and we had some banana bread that I baked with coffee.”

    *Swoon!*

  2. posted by Tom on

    I get up about 5 am and usually go up the farm and help out with morning chores, particularly this time of year when we are trying to get planted. Michael gets up about 7 am and heads off to work at the library.

    Its the same way with our friends, who are farmers, teachers, correctional officers, social workers, business owners, whatnot. The only gay friend I have who gets up late works the night shift, managing a network through the wee hours.

    So much for the “gay lifestyle”, I guess. Don’t you just love the stereotypes?

  3. posted by RMSD on

    “….what some still like to promote as gay identity.”

    You mean like the conservative republicans who do their utmost to reduce us to a ‘lifestyle’, an alien, repulsive one at that?

    • posted by BobN on

      I think he was referring to himself, as well.

      • posted by another steve on

        I don’t quite know what BobN’s hateful comment means, except that he’s a superior liberal and anyone else is stoopid.

        As for RMSD, it’s true that the anti-gay right-wing promotes the sex-obsessed gay stereotype. That’s bad and must be fought. The fact that some gays who see themselves as rad liberationists also promote an identity that is eerily similar is a fact and needs to be pointed out. Miller (or Stewart) didn’t make up the San Franciscans who were interviewed. I mean, have you been to San Francisco?

        • posted by BobN on

          I’ve never thought you were stoopid, but the comment can’t be that opaque. It, apparently, applies to you, too.

          Have you been to San Francisco?

  4. posted by Houndentenor on

    How does one respond to such a banal statement of the obvious. Most gay people do not live in a gay neighborhood. Not only the ones in San Francisco, NYC and LA, but the ones in Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, etc. etc. I have lived in Chelsea and Montrose and it was fun for awhile but not necessary. This has always been true.

    It’s also true that once upon a time it was necessary for gay businesses and some gay people to congregate in one area for relative safety. Most of us would still be living in the closet fearing being fired and shunned if it were discovered we were gay had it not been for the critical social and political mass accumulated in the gay “ghettos”. They have probably outlived their purpose. The gay bookstores are pretty much all gone and gay books, films, etc. are easily available online. Social networking has pretty much replaced the bar scene (and iphone apps appear to have replaced cruising sites…n.b. I don’t have an iphone so I’m going on what I have heard :-).

    Anyway…who “promotes” anything in particular as “gay identity”. It seems to me that there are at least a dozen easily identifiable gay “lifestyles” with distinct manners of dress, social gatherings, etc. and even with all that I would say that most gay people don’t really fit into any of them.

    The dirty little secret of homosexuality is that gay people are just as boring as everyone else. It’s the religious right’s worse fear and it’s why they like to show the most shocking examples of gay expression to scare their base. What they really fear is the nice gay couple next door whose kids come over for a play date with theirs.

  5. posted by Carl on

    Meanwhile, Republicans in Minnesota’s legislature are close to passing a ban same-sex unions. So apparently they don’t think gays are like everyone else…

    • posted by BobN on

      They oppose banana bread, Carl. That’s all there is to it.

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