the Other Press

March 14, 1991

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The attempt to portray the experience of being a Lesbian from an insider’s point of view as well as discuss some of the oppression has presented more of the sorrows than the joy of being a lesbian. Hopefully, it’s clear that the sorrows need not be there, since they’re the result of interaction with a damn hostile environment.

Understandably, some people may ask "Why come out, if it’s so much trouble?" And well they might ask. But then, why continue to be of Asian descent, to have blue eyes, or to be Black? Because it’s natural.

Why try to conform to some non-Gay image when it’s an impossible affront to integrity in the first place? It’s unnatural for us. And the unhappy consequences of such efforts have been a part of our struggle to come to terms with ourselves.

But, what is so wonderful about being a lesbian? It’s impossible to generalize. I like knowing that womensare potential lovespartners rather than competitors or enemies. I like walking down the street and exchanging a glance and a smile with another Lesbian, acknowledging that we are related and we know it. I like the camp humor that we have developed aS a means of spotlighting the insanity of most convention, “the hidden oppression, and our“ability’ to laugh and keep afloat inspite of it all.

But one of the greatest joys of being a LesbiangiS thateit permits you to be a full human being. in other words, by definition, you don’t fitsociety’s picture of the real woman.

Being a Gay person isn’t anti, it’s pro. We've learned to appreciate individual differences the hard way. We have a stake in everyone’s freedom because it’s the only way we will be assured of our own. We’ve been hated because we’re people who dared to follow our own truth in times and places where our love has been forbidden.

Gay people have had to develop a benign, self-protective alertness that can be viewed as a positive form of "paranoia." This "paranoia" is benign because it acts only as an early warning system that helps us to make social adjustments that smooth social interactions. It’s not the malignant sort of paranoia that keeps us tense with the suspicion that the world is out to get and makes social intercourse tempestuous or impossible.

Most of all, I suppose, from the list that could be drawn of the pleasures of being a Lesbian, I like being able to be myself, to respect differences in people, and to look on the human world with a sense of compassion.

ItSymot easy to be a Gay person im Olix, society today, row it's easier, than it was a decade or two ago. Once you realize you're Gay, you know that you're in for plenty of pain and struggle. You face discrimination and prejudice from people who supposedly love you. The emotional

urescan be enormous. But all of this is not due to the fact that you’re Gay, but the prejudice and bigotry of a society that has unthinkably used minorities for scapegoating.

In spite of the enormous weight placed on us by an oppressive environment, it’s possible to join hands with people who appreciate Gay people, especially other gay people today.

We are released by our Lesbian identity, and celebrate the pain of the past and the potential of the future.

Ican still remember the day I walked through that door, my mind had a million excuses running through it.

"Why did I have to tell them anyways. They don’t need to know. Do they? Later , I can tell

_ them later."

Lesbian Week

But I knew that it was time to share it with them, I could not be myself, and continue to live the false life that others wanted for me.

I'm ready to grow and do everything that I’ve kept inside that’s me. But who is the real me? All those years of hiding and lying have left me with an empty void.

Am I still the same person that I knew , Would my parents still love me? But, I finally realized to myself that I hadn’t changed, and if they really loved me, that their love for me could not simply be tossed aside. It was me that they cared for.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I hope that this letter will help you to understand that I love you both dearly , and that I wouldn't do anything to hurt you.

When I was younger you taught me not to steal, to be fair, and to be honest. So now I must be honest with you ...I'm gay.

How Do! Te

The letter would never finished, and never sent. send them the letter would the biggest and the crue cop-out. But where, how when would I tell them? @ book that I had réad ab coming out, had sdid to sure that I didnitesbuild dup situation to@ much. I we everything to be just right. next couple of days were s| P| just trying to decide just w it was that I could tell them. first it was going to be restaurant, good food a pleasant atmosphere. But told them there, then ff would all be worried ab keeping our voices down, é maybe not even able to talk.

Plan #2

Using food as a cent theme was a great idea. Abo block and a half away is as take out chicken place, so o went and bought a barrel chicken, some potato sal plastic forks — the whole

The day was sunny and bright. We stood in the middle of Commercial Drive, held hands and marched in support of lesbian rights and gay pride.

"We're here, we’re queer. We're proud of it, get used to it” and "Hey, hey, ho, ho, homophobia has got to go” shook the shops on the drive. My friend said to me it felt good to be that "out" in the open, defiantly kissing each other in front of the world.

It was a great day. We rocked the windows of Joe’s Cafe with our voices. Happy International Lesbian week.

Homosexuality I:

How many times have you read or heard somebody mutter the words that homosexuality is not just sex? Every time I hear this phrase being espoused by so called liberal minded individuals who are either very gay positve or are gay themselves,I get very angry.

If being then whatis why they and again tired of bei intellectuall intolerent or who see hq sexual dg misinformed homosexuali and intellec mirrors hetey

Justass and out of other in am manner, a happiness w a joyful oc Bisexual peo same emotio. or cares fq irrelevant w sister or bro girlfriend, or: being or male feelings one unique to t involved.

Gay me women, just a women. Simi