Just to Be Clear, and Hit You Over the Head with the Point...*

LGBT folks have a peculiar interest in normalization. Normalize men in dresses. Normalize trans athletes. Normalize throuples. Normalize fetishes. Here a norm, there a norm, everywhere a norm norm. Every norm everywhere all at once.

But as a gay man myself, I celebrate an inconvenient truth of Pride Month: We’ll never be normal. ...

Outside of culture wars or activist agendas — strictly by the numbers — LGBT identity is nothing remotely approaching mainstream. We’re here. We’re queer. You’ll never get used to it.Sometimes, admittedly, I can be too much. And folks who made that determination left me in favor of less. I don’t fault them. It’s a normal response.

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All of those links go to NYT stories in recent days.  They control the narrative... then chose a loser like this to knock it down.

I'm sorry this man believes he will never be normal.  I am sorry for his throuples, foursomes, venereal diseases, pain at being unpartnered, etc.  Those were his individual choices though.  Not all gay people choose so poorly.

Setting people up as "you are this" (again and again and again running specialty stories about how unusual and out of the mainstream gays are...) and then reinforcing TradMan family man masculinity as their preferred norm...

This is the reason why leadership of more diverse characteristics is needed at the top levels, not just to order donuts for the in-office days or to clap when another hot minority hire is snapped up from competitors.  This isn't diversity and all it does is reinforce the Wealthy White Males (and their preferred jackpot hires to benetton up the team) are naturally in power because they represent normality, stability and ... (can we be honest) Baby-making, as their primary contributions to The Future.

Can we be honest?  Those three aren't all that.  They have failed us as leaders and predictors as pundits so far, and we can't afford to live in their fantasy lands forever.  I gotta quit reading that rag already.

* It's like, why couldn't they have waited to run this anytime on the calendar but today?  They have to single out the gay people as not worthy of belonging even during PRIDE celebrations, it seems.  Not cool to piss on other people's parades.  

Just ... don't go.  Same as fatherless folk learn to tolerate weekends, or people who lose their mothers at first feel the sting, but then realize that life indeed goes on, the flowers bloom, babies are born (not all babies are human -- gotcha!), and it's okay for the people still with living mothers to count their blessings, even if it doesn't apply to you.

Being gay is a blessing.  Maybe next year the NYT will open their doors to others and share the joy that non-self-loathing LGBTQ+ people can bring to the team if they are valued as individual players, and not repping points on somebody's diversity chart in the back offices.  #BeBetterBoys #YesYouCan