{"id":615,"date":"2007-07-13T01:53:14","date_gmt":"2007-07-13T05:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=615"},"modified":"2018-08-16T23:29:26","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T03:29:26","slug":"15132-%c2%a0%c2%a0-marshall-kirk-hunter-madsen-after-the-ball-how-america-will-conquer-its-fear-and-hatred-of-gays-in-the-%e2%80%9990s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=615","title":{"rendered":"15132. (Marshall Kirk &<\/span> Hunter Madsen) After the Ball: How America Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the \u201990s"},"content":{"rendered":"

This fas\u00adci\u00adnat\u00ading book dates from 1989, when the Gay Rights move\u00adment was in con\u00adfu\u00adsion and trans\u00adfor\u00adma\u00adtion. The authors, who came from a back\u00adground of neu\u00adropsy\u00adchol\u00adogy and math\u00ade\u00admat\u00adics (Kirk), pub\u00adlic rela\u00adtions and adver\u00adtis\u00ading (Mad\u00adsen), where among the minor\u00adity of gay intel\u00adlec\u00adtu\u00adals who felt that the stag\u00adna\u00adtion that their cause had suf\u00adfered dur\u00ading the resur\u00adgence of reli\u00adgious fun\u00adda\u00admen\u00adtal\u00adism in the U.S. owed more to flaws and fail\u00adures in the gay com\u00admu\u00adnity than to the strength of its ene\u00admies. They felt that there was a clear\u00adly trod\u00adden path by which despised minori\u00adties had his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcally won a place in Amer\u00adi\u00adcan soci\u00adety, and that their gen\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion of gay activists had failed to fol\u00adlow that path, and become their own worst ene\u00admies. In ret\u00adro\u00adspect, much of their argu\u00adment now seems com\u00admon sense. Con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00adable progress has been made in this area (though much more in Cana\u00adda than in the Unit\u00aded States), and it has been made large\u00adly by the growth of a new mind\u00adset among gays. Kirk and Mad\u00adsen pre\u00adsaged this new mindset.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Essen\u00adtially, what Kirk and Mad\u00adsen want\u00aded was for the gay com\u00admu\u00adnity to turn away from the self\u00adish\u00adness, irre\u00adspon\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adity, dis\u00adhon\u00adesty, and grotesque\u00adness of the gay sub\u00adcul\u00adture, which they felt was root\u00aded in the expe\u00adri\u00adence of per\u00adse\u00adcu\u00adtion, and cul\u00adti\u00advate civil\u00adity, while at the same time using mod\u00adern tech\u00adniques of pub\u00adlic rela\u00adtions to \u201cnor\u00admal\u00adize\u201d the gay pres\u00adence in society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, it\u2019s not true that Amer\u00adica con\u00adquered its fear and hatred of gays in the 1990\u2019s, but there has been some good progress in that direc\u00adtion, and the evi\u00addence points to the fact that the authors were, if not exact\u00adly on the right track, then at least point\u00aded in the right direc\u00adtion. Progress in Cana\u00adda has been far more dra\u00admatic, per\u00adhaps because Cana\u00addian gays were more inclined, by exist\u00ading cul\u00adtural trends, to take Kirk and Madsen\u2019s pre\u00adscrip\u00adtions to heart. I live in a neigh\u00adbour\u00adhood in Toron\u00adto where their val\u00adues call the tune. Gay pub\u00adlic life is dom\u00adi\u00adnated by respectable mar\u00adried cou\u00adples. The local mem\u00adber of the provin\u00adcial par\u00adlia\u00adment is in one such mar\u00adriage, and holds an impor\u00adtant cab\u00adi\u00adnet post. He has no trou\u00adble main\u00adtain\u00ading a con\u00adstituency of inmi\u00adgrant fam\u00adi\u00adlies, straight pro\u00adfes\u00adsion\u00adals, shop\u00adkeep\u00aders and house\u00adhold\u00aders. Young gays are more inter\u00adested in romance, lead\u00ading to mar\u00adriage and a house in the sub\u00adurbs than they are in anony\u00admous sex, leather bars or \u00e9pat\u00e9 les bour\u00adgeois<\/em>. You see gay cou\u00adples of every age walk\u00ading arm-in-arm, with no more sense of their stand\u00ading out \u2015 they are just anoth\u00ader ele\u00adment in a com\u00adplex mosa\u00adic. They are nei\u00adther \u201cmak\u00ading a state\u00adment\u201d, nor fac\u00ading any hos\u00adtil\u00adity, mere\u00adly behav\u00ading in man\u00adner that every\u00adone in the neigh\u00adbour\u00adhood, straight or gay, con\u00adsid\u00aders nor\u00admal. Now, my neigh\u00adbour\u00adhood can\u00adnot claim to be typ\u00adi\u00adcal in Cana\u00adda, though many places in the coun\u00adtry are near\u00adly in the same pat\u00adtern. It does have every indi\u00adca\u00adtion of being the tem\u00adplate for the future across the country.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This fas\u00adci\u00adnat\u00ading book dates from 1989, when the Gay Rights move\u00adment was in con\u00adfu\u00adsion and trans\u00adfor\u00adma\u00adtion. The authors, who came from a back\u00adground of neu\u00adropsy\u00adchol\u00adogy and math\u00ade\u00admat\u00adics (Kirk), pub\u00adlic rela\u00adtions and adver\u00adtis\u00ading (Mad\u00adsen), where among the minor\u00adity of gay intellectuals \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-bt-reading-2007"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=615"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9014,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions\/9014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}