August 2000 Cover
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By
Mitzel
On the last day of my last job, running the bookshop, we were served with a subpoena. The lawyer requested we provide him with
documents-- Duces Tecum is Latin for "Bring 'Em With You, Buddy!"-- regarding a
certain individual, who, as I later learned, was charged with "distribution of pornography" for letting a 15-year-old fellow see part of a porn movie. The 15-year-old had been ratted out by his older gay brother, who told Mom--
well, this is all just another summer rerun.
Duces Tecum.
There I was, knee-deep in boxes, packing up the heritage of gay and lesbian literature, the new owner of the building in our way as he and his architects argued about the best way to turn an old
commercial building into luxury residential condominiums-- the rodents that will come with these swank spaces can be billed as "Back Bay Rats"-- and in came Ms. Sheriff with Ms. Subpoena. Miss You!
I wish I had had the capacity and the gift at that moment to sing an old Negro spiritual-- been down so long it all looked up to me! But a moment like this got me thinking. When is it that they ever leave
you alone? Unobserved? There is The Male Gaze. There is Driving While Black. There is Shopping While Gay. The eyes of Texas, and elsewhere, are upon you! It's how they keep control, a tight, exhausting, and airless system.
Children, bright ones at least, but perhaps slower ones too, recognize this situation. They are under surveillance, watched, monitored all the time, and many can't wait to break out-- which is why they go
with strangers they meet in chat rooms. This surveillance has gotten worse in the past 20 years, for the young as it has for those perceived as cultural and political dissenters. Those who have lived in colonized conditions know
this as well-- identity passes, searches, the legal terror, the US gulag-- more men of color in prison than in colleges and universities.
Where should this lead us? Some have suggested an accommodation with the Powers That Be. Their advice? Don't do this, don't be like that, don't associate with those people, etc. Historically, in gay life,
we ourselves have always been the This, That, and Those-- and no getting away from it, even if you try. The tyranny of the ownership class, their media, their thugs, and their loudmouths have this as their goal-- our silencing
and, for some, our liquidation. Needless to say, this approach is not useful to our community's survival and develo pment.
Much better we should take an oppositional stance, challenging everything out of the fat smelly trap of the enforcers. In my experience, I have found it effective and useful to doubt A) everything I read in
the newspapers (I read three and sometime four a day-- I'm a fiction writer; I love stories) and hear on the electronic media. And doubt B) Everything those who allegedly "represent" our community in public have to say.
And doubt C) all advice proffered by whomever the
they are up at any given cycle.
As I stood there, in the mess of the closing of a gay bookshop, the other lesson learned: if you leave culture to the famous "market forces," you won't have any, gay culture that is-- just Starbucks and venues
for gym shoes made for a buck and selling for $200. As a result of this trauma, I came to understand two useful things: no one, and I exempt about sixteen folks here, understands what running a successful gay/lesbian
bookstore is all about. (Even the Liquidator, when he came around, valued the store, its contents and fixtures as not even worth the tab to chuck the stuff out. I guess it depends what you value. And I repeat: Don't Trust Gay Culture
to The Marketplace-- Ms. Market and Ms. Place throw us out before breakfast, not even
Duces Tecum, just out with the garbage.)
The other thing I came to understand is, sad to say (again, except for the tiny few) we will have to go on "explaining" "gay life" to our straight kin for a very long time-- a complete waste of energy. I
recall being a member of the Gay Speaker's Bureau-- sounds like something out of Stalin, well, Lyceum Division at least, and I, briefly, its Emerson, well, Thoreau-- back in the early 70s. What we did was go out and explain
to folks "who" and "why" we were-- perhaps unnecessarily; most of these nice women's' groups we spoke to I assume knew what the story was; they just loved the attention of all the nice gay boys-- so like their sons!
These days, I wouldn't spend a minute on that. Others may. If and when you have to explain yourself, you are already at a disadvantage. Overcoming this cultural disadvantage is done quite simply and easily when you assume
an oppositional stance: make them excuse and explain their hegemony. Read Franz Fanon. When you accept a gay identity, and homosexual oppositionalism, there is the demarcation, always useful. Because of this develo
pment, which includes the triumph of the gay discourse (in some instances), what has come to pass are those pathetic "counter" demonstrations at Gay Pride Days, where some christians and fat male jocks show up to
celebrate "Straight Pride," the very emblem of failure of the imagination-- and I'd like to see those who want to have sex, even kisses, with joes like that. My idea of Straight Pride would be a Liz Taylor Film Festival-- what's yours?
Duces Tecum-- the lawyer called again today. Gimme, Bring me, I want-- and all I can say is: Miss Otis Regrets!
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