Mainstreaming Gay Secrets

I personally don't have any gay secrets, probably due to who I choose to have in my life, but I think every minority group has secrets. When I was little I learned an unspoken rule from my black grandmother (I also have a white one) about things you were not supposed to do/say in front of white people. I've even noticed that when someone breaks one of these rules on DL, other people get angry.

I don't have a problem with people [italic]knowing[italic] gay secrets or black secrets or Latino secrets or whatever, I just don't know that people outside the community would understand. Depending on what it is, it could lead to more stereotypes, appropriation or just all around buffoonery among the so called majority.

Forgot to close the italics, sorry[italic].[/italic]

I agree with R1 - I think it's all stereotypes buffoonery now. It's like the gay world has to go underground and start all over again. It is a straight interpretation of gay - stereotypes, clowns and a big promotion of trans (which is the opposite of gay).

What's The Gaiety?

Everything from the Castro Street Fair to gay pride parades and everything in between going mainstream and becoming a family day out.

[quote]What's The Gaiety?

Used to be a gay strip club in Midtown Manhattan. It used to be exclusively men. Then when Madonna mentioned it, women started to want to go there.

I miss the cache.

God I miss the Gaiety. Have some time to kill, pay $20 and see 7 hot, hard, naked guys. So good.

The Halloween street party in the Castro. As soon as straight people started attending there were fights and shootings. It’s pretty much a given that straight people fuck things up when it comes to gay venues and events. They’ve also ruined most gay bars as well with the girls nights out and bachelorette parties. Obviously not all straight people act badly , but talking about gay places opening to mainstream customers. It changes the dynamic and creates problems that didn’t exist before.

San Francisco on Halloween Turns Violent; 10 Are Injured By JESSE McKINLEYNOV. 2, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 1 — The authorities here were still searching Wednesday for two groups of young people whose name-calling escalated into gunfire at a public Halloween celebration, injuring 10 people.

The violence erupted at the end of a street party in the Castro neighborhood, the city’s famed gay district, an annual event attended by tens of thousands of costumed partiers. Sgt. Neville Gittens, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department, said the problems started at about 10:40 p.m., just after the police had begun to urge crowds to leave the area, which was blocked from vehicle traffic and had a stage for performances.

Sergeant Gittens said two large groups of people about 15 to 25 years of age began tossing insults back and forth. A member of one group then hit a member of the other group with a bottle, a gun was pulled, and shots were fired.

“The cops heard the shots,” said Sergeant Gittens. “They were that close.”

Nine people were hit by bullets, including bystanders; one woman was trampled in the chaos that followed, as people crouched in fear or fled to side streets. None of the injuries were considered life-threatening, the police said, though two people were hospitalized.

'Gay lifestyle'? Really? Ugh.

I get what OP means when he talks about cruising, but what kind of "secret" does a black or Latino or whatever has to the world? That sounds weird, for lack of a better word. I'm a white Jewish Latino man, and I can't think of a secret that any of these identities would have to keep.

I'm genuinely curious, what is that your grandma told you not to talk about in front of "white people"? That sounds so bizarre and segregationist.