Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site bbncca.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!bbncca!sdyer From: sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer) Newsgroups: net.motss Subject: Re: Posted for Dionysus: Introduction and new topics Message-ID: <895@bbncca.ARPA> Date: Tue, 14-Aug-84 01:05:05 EDT Article-I.D.: bbncca.895 Posted: Tue Aug 14 01:05:05 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 14-Aug-84 19:01:38 EDT References: <892@bbncca.ARPA> Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma. Lines: 45 Political climate: many older Gays are worried about the pendulum swinging back and the start of witch hunts. This is actually happening in the US Government especially the military and intelligence agencies. In view of the above how wise is it to come out fully. Remembering how irreversible the process -- Advise and Consent has an example of the consequences. Have you experienced any "real" discrimination. E.g. I got fired for being Gay. Comments like Dionysus' are valuable as reminders of how bad it can get. Nevertheless, gay people who have not experienced such oppression and had it affect their lives, though they might be called naive in certain circles, are actually agents of change, demonstrating to people closeted by fear and doubt just what can be, if they only say so. To be a bit corny, "freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." Coming out, or even just deciding to invite others into your "closet", is indeed an irreversable act, and a step into a great unknown. But, for some people, it is simply the only way to live: they'd rather be faced with a single reality, be it pleasant or not, than the menagerie of horrors presented by a worried imagination. Which is not to argue against common sense: if you are working for the CIA, like your job, and don't want to lose it, then don't come out. Some of us, having started careers in the post-Stonewall era, just won't work for companies which have a record of homophobia. Should the pendulum swing back again, well, that's just something we'll have to deal with if it should ever happen. But that's assuming that there is any pendulum to swing. My own opinion is that the changes we've seen in society over the past 25 years in the areas of racial equality, women's rights, and the nascent area of gay rights, are broad and far-reaching, and will not be easily turned back. The witch hunts of the fifties happened in a different culture than we have right now. There will always be individual incidents of discrimination or harassment, and one certainly must accept the possibility of such things. But to make this rule your life? Hopefully not. I can luckily state that I have NEVER been the recipient of any overt discrimination, nor have my gay friends. -- /Steve Dyer {decvax,linus,ima}!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbncca.ARPA