Lgbtqia

“We’re here, we’re dykes, we’re fabulous, don’t fuck with us!” I couldn’t even see what was happening, but the dykes at street level- a block away- were coincidently drowning out JD Samson from my stereo. At a steady pace the powerful snare drums signaled the dykes were marching through the trenches of Washington Square West toward the territorial battleground known as ‘The Gayborhood.’ Signs were unevenly dispersed throughout the fifty-or-so soldiers on foot:“Drag Kings”, “Girl Jocks”, “Gender Queers”, “Tom Boys”, “Queer Grrrls”, “BI-DYKE”, “Femmes”, “Butches”, “Dawgs for Dykes” and “Womyn of Color.” The battle cry grew louder and impassioned: “We’re here, we’re dykes, we’re fabulous, don’t fuck with us!” Sensation aroused within me and I felt compelled to rush down the flight of stairs and join my family. True, I’m not a dyke, but they did have a sub-section for a gender queer intersectionality. I teeter unsteadily between a second wave and third wave homosexualist ideology and empowered by third wave feminist principles. That afternoon the second wave homosexualist trumped the third wave feminist in my head: “Randy, it’s a fucking dyke march for womyn...just grab your camera.”

I get confused, more often than not, that I’m not a member of the lesbian population. My socialization into the realm of gender, sex and sexuality has been predominately fostered from a women’s lens: public school teachers, musicians, college advisors, authors, professors, colleagues, doctors, artists and dear friends. If ‘I think and therefore I am’ then... Never mind, post hoc ergo proctor hoc; I am therefore because of it. 

Still stuck on these subsidiaries of the Dyke March (eg. drag kings, femmes, tom boys) I wondered what a Faggot Mach would look like. Could there be a Faggot March? I doubt it. The gay population seems hung up on a binary: twink and jock (with the former trying to transition to the later at all costs.) Sure, there is one other division of the gay population- bears- but the community seems predicated on weight and body hair; a derelict of sex and sexuality in breach of gender. Gender in the gay community, as a whole, seems to be in high disregard if it falls out of the dominant culture’s binary of male and female. Contrarily, lesbians are more inclusive vis-à-vis gender, sex, and sexuality. 

So, then, why are lesbians transitioning into self-identifying as “gay?” More and more, I’m confounded by women’s self-identification as “gay.” Already subjugated and relegated as second class citizens because of their biological anatomy and gender, are women choosing to be labeled gay, because it has been delegated a man’s status? Gay men hold the dominant role among sex, gender, and sexuality minorities. Duh, yes, they’re men. (The second and third wave feminists in my head can’t stop bickering.) The seven pillars of the gender, sex and sexuality minority intersectionalities (LGBTQIA) are differentiated for what other purpose, than to label. 

Me: “She’s 'gay'?”

Friend: “Yeah, “gay.”

Me: “No, she’s a lesbian.”

Friend: “Whatever, she likes ladies. It’s what she calls herself.”

As sex, gender and sexuality evolve their classifications transition; definitions advance. The separatist inside of me cringes to think that these modes of categorization are melding together too quickly before we’ve been accepted by the dominant culture and for the objectives they use for integration/assimilation. On the other hand, for shame the dominant culture in not being built on acceptance. 

For now, though, I’ll just take pictures in my vicarious one person movement- there was no “Gay” sign at the Dyke March.