Digging up the memory

Many years ago I had the pleasure of being part of a recent study led by the LGBT Research and Resources Organization at UC Davis which examined how the public has perceived gay people and how they have responded to these perceptions. For six months they interviewed an eclectic sample of gay men and lesbians. What they found has never been recorded before so it gave us an opportunity to understand how our perception of gay people has changed over the years.

The study showed that public opinion in the past has often reflected the realities of the gay community in the past. For example, when gay women were in an anti-gay marriage debate in the US, it was still assumed that straight men would be in favour of marriage equality because they were assumed to think it was a heterosexual institution and heterosexual men thought it was not a legitimate gay institution.

So what were the public's beliefs about gay marriage at the time? According to the survey they were:

· 37% expected gay men to marry straight women and 39% expected gay women to marry straight men – a difference of just 2%

· 50% believed that gay marriage should be legal and 63% believed it should be illegal

· 51% expected gay men in same-sex relationships to be treated equal to straight couples – a difference of 6%

· 36% expected gay men to be treated as equal to straight men – a difference of 12%

· 35% expected gay couples to be treated equally to straight couples – a difference of 9%

Wow. Yet we’ve come a long way since then but there still remains a great deal of unsolved social and ethical issues surrounding those (and other) topics.

Then there was the question of homophobic bullying. It is also true that while not all the male-on-male bullying is motivated by homophobic animus, many times it is. The old stereotype (originating from the gay arena of mid and late 80ies) that gay men are more aggressive may be at the root of the violence, which has become so commonplace in both the public and private lives of gay males.

The most powerful example is the bullying of former Texas Longhorn Kevin Smith. The bullied Smith was beaten up in the locker room for daring to reveal that he was gay when he joined the Los Angeles Clippers on the eve of their NBA finals loss to the Chicago Bulls in June. His fellow Clippers made their displeasure with Smith's behaviour a central theme of their media day before the NBA Draft. "We're the team of truth," Smith said during a press conference. "I told the team we have a lot of young players in our locker room that are gay. I wanted to let them know, they're my sons, and I love them. I love you, Kevin. I hope you're happy." However, Smith has spoken no contrition for the attack, calling it a "freak thing that happened."

Then there’s the question of the responsibility of the mass media. If the media is doing its job, these are the people who will think that homosexuality is something they're born into (or some form of choice it is), that homosexuality is just an inevitable byproduct of certain social and psychological factors, and that it is not something which should be condemned. Otherwise this is how “anti-homosexualists” are born, people being exposed to the "toxic" views about homosexuality that are still common in the media. This is why the media is particularly important as a tool in promoting and supporting pro-gay views and the attitudes they promote.

If, on the other hand, the anti-gay agenda has succeeded in creating and maintaining prejudice and hatred against homosexuals, what does this say about our culture as a whole? I don’t know if I have the answer but, sure as hell, it ain’t gonna be something nice!