You Didn’t Ask, Part Deux
My former colleague, John Mosey, in an e-mail to me about something else, said,
BTW did you just out yourself or did I read it wrong?
I assured him that he didn’t read it wrong. I also said I was a little surprised at the lack of comments on that post; when I posted photos of myself for the first time, I got 19 comments. I thought maybe I was being too oblique about it, based on Mosey’s reaction. But I guess it just means it’s a non-story.
Mosey also asked, in his inimitable fashion, if I was going to “go all militant” now and make every post about being gay. I assured him that I wasn’t. Other people can and do write more cogently about gay issues, so I leave it to them. But I just wanted to be able to write honestly and personally about gay topics when they come up in the larger culture.
OK, back to our regularly scheduled programming.
One question: whose arm is that in the grumpy photo?
It’s mine, but in looking at it again I can see what you mean.
I dunno if I’m gonna get in trouble for violating the recommendations of this section, [Part 1 Chp2, Feigning Surprise: http://www.io.com/~wwwomen/queer/etiquette/chap2.html ] but I didn’t realize you were outing yourself ’cause I thought you already -were- out.
Well, the “you didn’t ask” line has been there a long time.
Count me in with the “feigning surprise” crowd. I guess I’d just assumed you were already out when I first started reading WMT, because of the way you spoke of your female friends – based entirely on their merits and abilities, with no mention of their relative attractiveness. And then I noticed that you talked about your male friends the exact same way.
On further reflection, I can only comment on how sad that is – that a habit of being egalitarian, of seeing people as simply people, is noteworthy for being so out of the ordinary. I know I’m seldom as fair in my own descriptions of others. You’ve given me an example to live up to. Words do indeed mean things.
Anyway, having taken that one assumption for granted all along, I was much more curious about what you looked like than anything else. Thanks for linking to the pictures.
I think it would have gotten a lot more comments if you’d been more dramatic and said “HEY, I LIKE WEINERS!” Of course, that’s a bit over the top.
Still, isn’t it cool when people just kind of nod and go on about things? Makes you feel all nice and accepted.
I wish I could edit that typo. Damn I and E and before and after rules. Bleh.
I think it’s funny that when a gay person actually talks about what it’s like to be gay, that can be labeled “militant”. By the same token, you could criticize daytime TV’s militant heterosexualism or some such nonsense. Accepting something and not wanting to hear about something aren’t exactly compatible perspectives.
I LIKE BUTT-SEX WITH MEN!!!111
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I go now.
I thought the restaurant review was about Home Depot staff . . . .
I didn’t realize you were gay before I saw that post, but I’d only been reading your site for a short time. I also didn’t realize it was a new admission; I guess I figured everyone else knew already.