Making cultural sport of gays
I DON'T know whether to be appalled, insulted, amused, or revolted by Alex Beam's April 18 Living/Arts column "Gay people, give me back my stuff!" The premise would be laughable if it weren't so stereotypically ignorant: that anything that one enjoyed is lost or of less significance because it is also of value to someone who is gay.
Beam takes all manner of things, people, property, and institutions, puts them in a great bowl of presumed public opinion (as represented by an infallible media or cable TV), and denigrates them by saying that they enjoy a gay following.
Even assuming Beam is right, that all these things of his have been "appropriated by gays," he can hardly have lost them unless -- heaven forbid -- he'll be mistaken for being gay if he continues to use or enjoy them.
If Beam were to rewrite this column and replace the words "gay" or "lesbian" with a racial or religious reference, would any of it be any more bigoted, insulting, or ignorant?
But I suppose it's acceptable if Beam is merely trying to be funny and is only half serious; I suppose, then, that I should do him the favor of offering to buy his Subaru so he won't be mistaken for a lesbian.
KATHY PHILLIPS North Andover
ALEX BEAM associates the word "gay" with certain cars, lounge singers, and cigarette brands rather than with human beings in general.
However, after having met thousands of openly gay people during my life, for me the word has very different connotations :
Father Mychal Judge, the gay Roman Catholic priest who died ministering to firefighters at the World Trade Center.
Mark Bingham, the gay rugby player who died fighting the terrorists on United Flight 93.
The thousands of gay American soldiers in Iraq, who are willing to die for a country that rewards their loyalty by forcing them into the dishonesty of "don't ask, don't tell."
The Equality Riders, the young gay people who are campaigning to end homophobic defamation and discrimination on so-called Christian campuses.
Some of us may be the frivolous consumers Mr. Beam describes, but there are many more whose lives contradict the stereotypes perpetuated by television sitcoms and journalists desperate to elicit a laugh at the expense of a minority.
OWEN SHOWS Boston
THANK YOU for finally pointing out something that has frustrated many straight women (including myself) since the conception of the phenomenon of gays "appropriating" everything.
Now, because anything remotely refined is considered gay or at least metrosexual, the poor straight man that we women may eventually date has to either give in to the teasing -- "Wow, dude, that's kinda gay" -- or toss out gentlemanly attire and behaviors almost entirely and be the "macho man."
Gay people, give me back my cultured, refined straight men!
JENNA ELLIS Berthoud, Colo. 