Johnny Weir recently confirmed that the sky is indeed blue when he finally acknowledged that he’s gay, and he made a statement that’s being latched onto by conservatives as some sort of statement in support of their ideology. Here’s what Weir said:
“But pressure is the last thing that would make me want to ‘join’ a community… The massive backlash against me in the gay media and community only made me dig my ‘closeted’ heels in further.”
Oh, whatever. Creating drama where there is none.
So conservative law perfesser Ann Althouse latched onto this, giving her list of deep interpretations for why Weir waited so long:
3. Some people think of themselves as, above all, individuals, and when others think the most important thing is their membership in a particular group, they resist. They don’t want to be defined by a single quality, especially when it’s a quality that makes other people see them in terms of the group stereotype, and not personal uniqueness. There was a special playfulness to this notion in Weir’s case, because he engaged in the very open “flamboyant” style that people think of as stereotypically gay.
4. Just because you’re gay doesn’t mean you like other gay people and want to join their team. Heterosexuals don’t naturally love all the other heterosexuals. Gay men may need to look for their sexual partners in the pool of gay men,* but there’s no reason why you have to like everyone in your category of potential sexual partners, and, indeed, it’s a good idea to reject the vast majority of potential sexual partners. You only need one (at most). You’re entitled to think that most of them are jerks.
Show of hands, please: how many of you, when you came out, did so in order to retain “membership” in the “gay community”? Likewise, how many of you did it as a matter of finally living with honesty and integrity?
And with your hands still raised, please help me smack down the strawman Ann built in #4, with her notion that somehow every gay person is expected to adore everyone in Their Category. Because really, who are we talking about? Speaking from personal experience here, I’m, among many things, a part of The Gay Community — indeed, I’m, I suppose, one of many diverse spokespeople for The Gay Community, writing to you as I am now — but no one on earth would ever accuse me of liking most gay people. I like some of them! Maybe I like you! Maybe I do not! The point is, what in hell does this have to do with Johnny Weir coming out or not coming out?
But we’re not done erecting strawmen yet. Over at GayPatriot, Dan Blatt approvingly linked to Althouse’s post with commentary of his own. Bear in mind, we are still talking about the ice skater who compensates for his lack of gold medals by wearing boas:
It often seem that the gay rights’ movement is devoted to the notion of group rights rather than individual ones. It is why I believe we need develop a conservative message on gays, independent to that developed by the left-leaning gay groups, organizations helmed by men and women with a background in Democratic politics, liberal ideologies and statist theories.
Groups are, um, made up of individuals, and when the individuals in a group are all being denied, individually, the same rights as the other people in the group, it’s common for the, ahem, group of, erm, individuals, to band together to fight for the equal rights of the individuals in the, um, group.
Anyway, to sum up, Johnny Weir didn’t come out because he didn’t want to be perceived as a stereotypical member of the gay community, who only wants rights for groups, but not for individuals, and this is good for conservatives because, oh god, he’s skating to Ke$ha, turn it off, turn it off, turn it off!
But this is resonating with someone because Althouse then returns the link-wank and creates a new post out of a comment on the Gay Patriot post. As Pam would say, protect your keyboards:
“‘Coming out’ doesn’t mean coming to terms with the fact you’re gay — it means publicly identifying yourself so the Gay Police can find you and kidnap you into the Gay Borg. It’s easier for the Gay Police to round you up if you believe that Flyover Country is hostile to gays to you move to a Gay Urban Area. Then, the Borg can save expenses for rounding you up since you jumped into the pen voluntarily. For me, the process of accepting my sexuality meant rejecting the gay community because they didn’t offer a model for sexual behavior which had anything to do with my values. All of my friends are straight since my core identities are masculine, Christian, etc. Gay is way down on the list. I am glad that many gays are refusing to join the Borg, even if it means sacrificing the toaster.”
Okay, now that’s some weird paranoia right there. First of all, gay people live all over flyover country [hi!], but when people in the process of coming out of the closet are simultaneously rejecting others who have taken that same journey, then it bespeaks of personal problems on THEIR PART, not on that of The Gay Community, because as you all know, The Gay Community is made up of many diverse, ahem, INDIVIDUALS. Also, were y’all aware that there was a Borg? Have we all been missing the mandatory meetings? Well damn.
But perhaps we just don’t get it because we’re not conservatives looking for some way to differentiate ourselves as victims in some way or another.
Of course, Tintin at Sadly, No! shortened Dan’s post about “group rights” and “conservative messages on gays” into its purest meaning:
Gay liberals are always shouting about how gay they are. Gay conservatives, like myself, see themselves as unique individuals rather than as gays. Please pay no attention to the name of this blog.
Giggle.
