It's a long one, but well worth your time.
Over and over again, the speakers expounded on how the philosophy of conservatism, and its insistence on liberty and freedom from the State, created a paradigm for gay identity and expression. It seemed that many attendees had so reworked their own history that Gay Liberation had become a natural outgrowth of Barry Goldwater conservatism, completely disconnected from feminist and left-wing political and social movements. Understanding a lot of LCR members means understanding that many gay Americans don’t necessarily see their struggle connected to larger feminist and identity politics movements.
During one particularly embarrassing (and revealing) moment, one of the original LCR founders shouted from the podium: “And because of Reagan’s courage as governor, California avoided banning all gays and lesbians from being state teachers.” How sad that such a defensive, small-bore, conciliatory act became Reagan’s most proudly pro-gay moment, and how much sadder for so many gay people to be unabashedly championing the man who refused to mention the word AIDS for the first five years of his Presidency even as the virus raged across the country and ravaged the gay community.
Insert your "Denial isn't just a river in Egypt" joke here.
(Energy dome tip to August. I'm gonna make somebody cross-post me...)
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