Loose Lips	Loose Lips Archive

Many of us are fortunate enough to have achieved the dream-- we live lives that are openly gay. We have found lovers and networks of gay friends, and we don't live in fear of exposure on the job, rejection from our families, or violence on the street. That is a remarkable achievement of the gay rights movement-- one that was scarcely imaginable thirty years ago. Of course, the places where one can lead an openly gay life are still restricted, primarily to the cities of North America, Europe, and Australia. Gay people in many parts of Africa, Asia, and Central and South America still live in fear of exposure and its consequences: shame, rejection, loss of jobs, legal prosecution, and even loss of life. And the situation in some rural parts of the United States is not much better-- gay people are still fired, denied custody of their children, or attacked on the streets.

View our poll archive

But overall, we can be proud of the way we have changed the world. Gay people have never lived so openly in so many places as we do today. But while we have managed to create safe environments for adult gay men and lesbians in many parts of the world, the world of gay young people is still one fraught with pain and danger.

Public expressions of homophobia have become increasingly unacceptable in North America, with those who cross the line subject to a barrage of criticism and consequences. (Think of the careers of Anita Bryant or Laura Schlessinger to see what happens to public homophobes.) But public homophobia is the rule in most North American high schools, where openly gay students are insulted, attacked, or shunned. To make things worse, teachers and school administrators are often overtly or covertly supportive of the homophobes. Students who are harassed or attacked may themselves be disciplined for having provoked the discrimination by being "too gay."

Unfortunately, the language of young people reinforces homophobia. "That's so gay" has become the vogue putdown for anything that is lame, stupid, or worthless. Miss Poubelle believes that the cartoon "South Park," which frequently uses the phrase, has played a significant role in spreading it to a wider audience. But young people who call a weepy song or an unfashionable shirt "gay" will frequently deny that they have any homophobic intention. "It's just what people say; it doesn't mean anything," says a typical teenager interviewed on MTV's Fight for Your Rights.

That rings about as true to Miss Poubelle as the denial that nigger refers to black people. Growing up in South Carolina, she frequently heard racists claim that "Nigger just means somebody who's worthless; a white person can be a nigger too." To accept this claim, we have to believe that it is just an accident that these words meaning 'worthless, stupid, lame' happen to be the same as the words referring to groups of people who have historically been oppressed and discriminated against. Miss Poubelle isn't buying it.

But it's not a matter of convincing the readers of The Guide that homophobic language is bad and that young gay people deserve to be treated with respect, it's a matter of convincing their peers. And that's where the gay rights movement has so far fallen short. While we've achieved a remarkable degree of success in the adult world, the world of young people is still largely hostile and dangerous.

But a few organizations have begun to take up that fight. Miss Poubelle admires the work of the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). GLSEN works to counter homophobia in US schools, and they have had a string of notable successes. They've supported the formation of Gay-Straight Alliances in many high schools, and there are now over 700 such groups in 46 states. They've also managed to get many school districts to adopt anti-harassment policies, to offer diversity training to teachers and staff, and to offer legal assistance to kids who suffer from homophobic treatment.

Miss Poubelle has felt for some time that we need a word for those special people who spend their time and energy in trying to make the world a better place for young gay people. In Buddhist thinking, the goal of meditation is to achieve a liberation from the world of suffering. But there is a special class of soul, the bodhisattvas, who postpone their own liberation, staying in the world of suffering till all others are also liberated. In the terms of our movement, these are the brave souls who don't move to the gay-friendly cities to enjoy their own liberation, but instead stay involved in the rural communities, the homophobic school systems, and the hostile religious institutions to work for a better society for all. They undertake work that will ultimately benefit all of us, and they deserve our support. Miss Poubelle says a special thanks to our gay and lesbian bodhisattvas.