I’ll bet that all those guys who spent their lives getting their jollies by “rolling queers” in the 80’s and 90’s feel real sheepish and apologeting now that they realiize that gays don’t really exist.
I lived on Polk Street in San Francisco in the 1980’s and there was man killed when I lived there, killed for being gay. He was beaten brutally. I didn’t know him well, but he was an acquaintance. Later, two college kids from the Peninsula Burbs were convicted of manslaughter.
I noticed this morning that Michael K Williams was being described as ‘same gender loving’ rather than gay by one of the people praising him in the Guardian. Five times as many syllables and much less accurate.
Fair enough. ‘Gay or bisexual’ even equalises the number of syllables, so maybe I’m looking for things to get riled up about. I’m not clear from the link you gave exactly what the advantage of same gender loving as a term is supposed to be.
The advent of queer theory obviously introduces the implication that you’ll be attracted to someone based on the gender they identify as, but if it’s an early 90s term then its coiner can’t really have foreseen that.
The loving part seems to introduce quite a lot of ambiguity. If you’ve had same sex sexual partners but haven’t been in love with them are you same gender loving? Maybe the intention is to emphasise that same sex relationships can be loving and caring.
I’ll bet that all those guys who spent their lives getting their jollies by “rolling queers” in the 80’s and 90’s feel real sheepish and apologeting now that they realiize that gays don’t really exist.
I lived on Polk Street in San Francisco in the 1980’s and there was man killed when I lived there, killed for being gay. He was beaten brutally. I didn’t know him well, but he was an acquaintance. Later, two college kids from the Peninsula Burbs were convicted of manslaughter.
I noticed this morning that Michael K Williams was being described as ‘same gender loving’ rather than gay by one of the people praising him in the Guardian. Five times as many syllables and much less accurate.
Gay or bisexual that is.
Apparently same-gender-loving is an African-American way of saying gay or bisexual which has nothing to do with trans people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same_gender_loving
Fair enough. ‘Gay or bisexual’ even equalises the number of syllables, so maybe I’m looking for things to get riled up about. I’m not clear from the link you gave exactly what the advantage of same gender loving as a term is supposed to be.
The advent of queer theory obviously introduces the implication that you’ll be attracted to someone based on the gender they identify as, but if it’s an early 90s term then its coiner can’t really have foreseen that.
The loving part seems to introduce quite a lot of ambiguity. If you’ve had same sex sexual partners but haven’t been in love with them are you same gender loving? Maybe the intention is to emphasise that same sex relationships can be loving and caring.