Sexuality and American Culture

It seems that in popular discourse today, all gay men and lesbians are simply lumped together into one big, gay group and are treated as one collective individual: "the gay community." Whether as students studying their cultural contributions or as politicians attempting to appease them, straight people - and certainly many gay people themselves - have come to view homosexuals as a single, unified entity.

Often, this can be a good thing. For gay people who don't live in relatively tolerant or accepting cities like New York and San Francisco, this automatic shared identity may come as a blessing. For those who have spent the greater part of their lives feeling isolated, rejected, and alone, the notion of a gay community can offer them a much-needed sense of comfort and peace. It can play a significant role in helping them to realize that they are, indeed, not at all alone and that they are completely normal human beings just like anyone else. 

Likewise, for straight people who are not necessarily homophobic, but may simply not be familiar with many gay people (or at least not know that they are), the increasingly visible image of "the gay community" may help them to realize that homosexuals are not only numerous, but for the most part, just like them. Visibility and familiarity are crucial in attaining acceptance and civil rights. In this year's award-winning film Milk, based on the true story of the murdered gay rights activist Harvey Milk, Milk calls upon every gay man and lesbian to come out in order to defeat California's hateful Proposition 6, which was put on the ballot in 1978, thirty years before Proposition 8. Only by showing the straight voters that they all knew - and probably liked - at least one or two homosexuals would they convince them to vote against the proposition, which would have banned gays and lesbians from teaching in public schools, as well as any straight teachers who supported them. 

However, this kind of forced or assumed membership into a club in which one may not want to belong or in which one may not end up being accepted can prove problematic, as Kath Weston discusses in her essay "Gay Families as the 'Families We Choose'" and as Tony Kushner explores in his two-part play Angels in America.

By claiming that all gay men and lesbians are somehow connected, the concept of the gay community takes away their choice, Weston says. They no longer have the power to choose who belongs to their extended circle of family and friends and who doesn't. This is a power that has long been valued by many homosexuals in claiming partners and loved ones as family members of their own. Furthermore, the idea that all homosexuals are bound by some kind of mutual understanding based on their sexual orientation proves, in reality, to be completely false. Weston discusses the "disenchantment with the unity implicit in the concept of community" as racial, gender, and class gaps have marginalized those who do not fit in with the white, upper-to-middle-class men who dominate "the gay community." (Peiss ed., 503) This results in an other-ing of the other, and it is clear that "the community" is not actually as inclusive as its name suggests.

In Angels in America, the character of Belize best represents the homosexual who has been marginalized not only by society, but by other homosexuals. As a sassy African-American drag queen, Belize is immediately set apart from the other characters in the play. He seems to be discriminated against, first and foremost, not because of his sexuality, but because of his race. The most blatant displays of racism he suffers come from the vicious epithets hurled by Roy, although there is a racial tension marking his relationship with Louis, as well. Louis makes statements such as "most black people are anti-Semitic" and claims that Belize hates him because he is a Jew. (Kushner, Millennium Approaches, 95) Religion thus comes into play, as well, as a potentially divisive element within the so-called gay community. Louis also looks down on Belize's doing drag, so we have gender identity/expression as another controversial community issue (and another way of knocking the community concept down).

The divisive issue of religion plays more importance for the character of Joe, who struggles to reconcile his sexuality with his faith. He is a devout Mormon and feels that his homosexuality is incompatible with living a decent, moral life. He spends his life trying to fight it, trying to pretend that he is happy with Harper, but, eventually, he can deny it no more.

Yet even after he begins to accept who he is and begins to embrace a homosexuality identity, Joe's religion still prevents him from acquiring full membership into the gay community. After having sex with Joe, Louis is shocked and disturbed to find out that he is a Mormon. An ordinary Protestant, he could accept, but not a Mormon. Thus, there is a religious tension and an outsider status already characterizing Joe's newly adopted lifestyle. 

In addition to those who are somehow excluded from the communal gay group, there are those who themselves reject it. Ruthless lawyer Roy Cohn in Angels not only refuses membership into the gay community, but refuses the label of homosexual altogether. To him, a homosexual is not simply a man who sleeps with other men (which he admits to doing); homosexuals are "men who in fifteen years of trying cannot get a pissant antidiscrimination bill through City Council. Homosexuals are men who know nobody and who nobody knows. Who have zero clout." (Kushner, Millennium Approaches, 45) 

Roy's view of homosexuals reflects one of the major problems resulting from the idea of the community: it alienates. It alienates gay people who cannot identify with any of the limited images of homosexuals that are put forth, and it further alienates homophobic straight people who do not like the images they see. As Weston briefly touches upon in her essay, the concept of the community ends up reinforcing gay stereotypes such as the butch/femme stereotype for lesbians because they feel that they are supposed to fit into one of those prescribed categories. And as more and more conform to the stereotypes, the more the public comes to perceive those stereotypes as true of all homosexuals. Those who do not conform are alienated and some, like Roy, become homophobic themselves. Roy is deeply closeted, but not because he seems ashamed of his sexuality; rather, he seems more afraid that he will be associated with those who have come to represent all homosexuals. And those people, according to Roy, are weak and powerless, qualities that would never be used to describe him.

The idea that there is some kind of collective gay community rooted in mutual understanding and connectedness based on one's orientation alone is clearly a sham. But even more than that, it is potentially dangerous. I think it seems to do more harm than good in that it seems to separate more than it unites. There is certainly a strong community element bonding all the characters in Angels in America, but it is not based on sexual orientation. That would be too easy. It is based on something much broader and something that encompasses much more of humanity than that.