04/24/2006
Families and gays are clashing in San Francisco's Castro district. Gay sex shop owner: "There are always a few outspoken couples with children, both heterosexual and gay, who expect everything to be prim and proper. But this is the Castro and anybody who moves here knows what they are moving to. We are very sexual people and we do tend to flaunt it a little. I have cleaned up my windows to the extent I am willing to. This is the one place in the country where we can all gather and be ourselves and not have to worry. I don't like that people are trying to change our ways."
Delaware-dwelling Johnny Weir says he wants to become a fashion designer when he quits ice skating: "I've already decided that I'll skate four more years, and achieve everything that I want to achieve in those next few years. But there's more to life than just skating. So I'm going to try four more years, do my best, maybe pick a new style."
New BBC doc focuses on the trouble with gay men: "He argues on the show that gay men are obsessed with their looks, drugs and sex...Mr Fanshawe concludes that gay men can only embrace the new world by growing out of the drugs and sex and settling down to a more responsible lifestyle."
The Muslim council of Britain has backtracked on a promise it made to reach out to the gay community. According to the Observer, "The plan was hailed as a breakthrough by gay rights campaigners and a sign the organisation was looking to distance itself from comments made earlier this year by its secretary general, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, who described homosexuals as 'harmful, immoral, unacceptable and diseased'." Now, a spokesman for the Muslim organization says they made no such promise: "'There is no truth in these quotes. Our position is very clear, our Secretary General was nearly prosecuted for this because we maintain that homosexual relationships are sinful in Islam.'"
Posted 2:20 PM EST by Andy Towle in Elsewhere | Permalink
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"gay men are obsessed with their looks, drugs and sex"
Gee, you think...
Posted by: CJ | Apr 24, 2006 2:30:54 PM
Gay men are obsessed with looks, drugs, and sex. Hmm. How is that different from straight people? Let's be honest... straight people are just as piggy and superficial as we are. They're just better at hiding it... that is, unless they're on a show like Elimidate. Talk about the shallow end of the gene pool...
And so, Mr. Fanshawe, I'd love to settle down into a more responsible lifestyle (as if being a taxpaying, law-abiding, politically and socially active professional person in a loving relationship for almost 13 years is somehow irresponsible). I'm assuming you mean something akin to straight marriage. Would that it were possible, Mr. Fanshawe. Tragically, thanks to reports like yours that fan the flames of prejudice, it's not.
Conservatives love to chastise us for not conforming to their idea of what responsible behavior should be, all the while passing legislation making it impossible for us to do so. Don't think it's an accident... if they allowed us to be respectable, then they'd have to find someone else to pick on in order to demonstrate their superiority and keep their followers fearful and obedient.
Posted by: Brian | Apr 24, 2006 2:42:27 PM
San Francisco,Castro... symbolize a real gay/straight community living happily together.
If some bloody anti-gay people don't like that, they should not move in there or just sell up and move out.
I live in the United Kingdom, but I have been in love with that lovely city ever since I knew I was gay.
Just leave San Francisco and Castro alone, I say!
Posted by: Austin | Apr 24, 2006 2:43:51 PM
I guess we all could take umbrage the thought that we are obessed with obsessed with our looks, drugs and sex, although, gosh, it seems oddly true...If your eyes will now veer slightly to the right ( imean to the ads on this page), what do you see....flesh...lots of it..in fact, nearly every ad is fleshcentric...also, like it or not things change...the Castro was once the beacon for sexual freedom, but its changed...do you really think its right that a S&M store should have in its windows posters of naked men, erections? Apparently this is a conservative/liberal issue? Silly.
Posted by: CastroOil | Apr 24, 2006 2:52:20 PM
Re "The Trouble with...": I know nothing about this producer and have no idea if he can be trusted to present objective information. Perhaps the title and statements are inflammatory for publicity.
However, I do have a suggestion for a few episodes: "The Trouble with Documentarians", "The Trouble with People who Stereotype Others" and to turn the camera inward, "The Trouble with People Who have Trouble With Those Who Stereotype Others."
Posted by: Kevin | Apr 24, 2006 2:55:53 PM
"The trouble with..." is a very marginalized summary. But then, what isn't? For the most part, the "visible" gay community is the one that primps and preens, clubs, drinks and obsesses. Yes, they are not the majority of gays, but they are where society turns their attention. Look at that tired tape that the AFA marches out of the leather go-go boys and drag queens in a Pride parade. Unfortunatlely for todays community, it IS a parade; a party.
Perhaps a couple years of Gay Pride Marchs for Equality would turn the tide.
As for Johnny Wierd. COME OUT, ALREADY! For the love of God...
Rad
Posted by: Rad | Apr 24, 2006 3:06:53 PM
"obsessed with their looks"??? Has he ever been to a leather bar? (Or seen the sopranos for that matter?) Most gay men I come in contact with are not, lets just say, "lookers". In fact, I find that the men in the majority of straight bars that I visit look 100 times better than the average gay man in the average gay bar.
Posted by: Damien | Apr 24, 2006 3:36:46 PM
The trouble with gay men? They're not straight. See, straight guys are SUCH a turn-on....
Seriously: it's ironic, that Fanshawe seems to be a bit ass-backwards in his reasoning. Most of the gay men I know are genuinely seeking stability. Most of the straight guys I know want to party like dogs. And get drunk, and do gay guys.
Posted by: Jacko | Apr 24, 2006 4:09:47 PM
As a gay man and his partner who are raising a child and who live barely a mile from the Castro...
I'd like to know why the gay (and straight) parents bought homes in that neighborhood? I think it is unfair to demand a neighbor change its character when you had a choice to not live there. If you lived their and then had children, didn't the character of the neighbhor not figure into your decisions of having a child and not moving (it's not like you'd lose out financially, its one of the more overpriced neighborhoods now.
When take our daughter out to the castro (for a movie like Sound of Music Singalong last year:) , we just don't go past the stores we know have displays of overt sexual content, quite simple, they all tend to be around 18th street.
I'd say to the parents to just live with it, you know what you got yourselves into when you went into it.
but i'll probably feel like i'm being too harsh later :).
Posted by: trey | Apr 24, 2006 4:28:51 PM
I live in the Castro, and have heard nothing of any tension btn the straight folk and the gay folk. There has indeed been an influx of straight families into the Castro, but those families move in knowing that it is a gay neighborhood and often times that is why they move there.
The "problem" outlined in the article is not that folks object to the "queers in the neighborhood;" the complaint is that some stores in the 'hood have very risque window displays. They can be over the top: large posters for porn movies; make-your-own-dildo-shaped-like-your-own-dick kits; and the like. Hell, even the bus stops have ads for porn. I have absolutely no problem with them, and in fact, I think they are examples of what makes San Francisco so great, but I can see that a mother or father of a 5-year-old might.
But, this is SF and it is just going to happen. Take for example, Mark Morford, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. He is straight, and his last column was generally a query as to whether folks should really have a $500 dildo; he concluded that yes, you should.
And the TV critic for the Chronicle introduced his column on the finale of Arrested Development with something like "when a show starts with a reference to fisting . . . you know you're in for a fun episode." How many major dailies would print a reference to fisting in the TV column (or anywhere in the paper for that matter)?
The point is that sex doesn't scare San Franciscans like it scares most of the country. It's a magical place; wish you were here.
Posted by: Kyle Childress | Apr 24, 2006 4:41:04 PM
"The Trouble With..." is a strand of documentaries featuring different people proposing arguments that are advertised as being against commonplace assumptions, hence Fanshawe's thing this week. You can see the crux of his argument in this Guardian piece from the weekend: http://www.guardian.co.uk/gayrights/story/0,,1759928,00.html
Fanshawe has always struck me as a bit of a tedious type so it comes as no surprise he should be bitching about gay men "not acting their age". A gay guy who recently married his partner wrote to The Guardian today pointing out that a) whatever advances have been made, there's still enough gay hate to go around in Britain, cf: Clapham Common, and b) many young gay guys forced to remain closeted by bigotry through their teenage years can hardly be blamed for living things up later on.
Posted by: John C | Apr 24, 2006 4:43:12 PM
Oops, posted the wrong link, this is Fanshawe's piece for anyone interested: http://www.guardian.co.uk/gayrights/story/0,,1757932,00.html
Posted by: John C | Apr 24, 2006 4:56:14 PM
Next month on BBC:
"The Trouble With Stereotyping"
Posted by: huh@huh.com | Apr 24, 2006 6:46:02 PM
"The Trouble With..." again seems to sanctify "good gays" and demonise "dodgy queers". Isn't life much more of a weave of identity, sexual practices and lifestyles than an either/or? But oh to be living a mile from the Castro instead of good ol' Catholic Ireland!!
Posted by: Sean R | Apr 24, 2006 6:47:54 PM
I live in the 'stro, too, and, while gay as a goose with a well-seasoned taste for "porn," I resent anyone, gay, straight or epicene, equating being gay with rubbing sex in people's faces—any kind of people. While there are times when I feel auslanders cross the line—e.g., the periodic pilgrimages to the corner of "18th &" by Xtians determined to "save" our sodomitic souls, at whom I am proud to say I've literally thrown rotten eggs—I also resent anyone's "it's our neighborhood—deal with it" arrogance. It's not only arrogant, but unrealistic. I've lived in the Castro for nearly a quarter century longer than Rock Hard has been open, and the here-today/gone-tomorrow store that was cited for displaying a wooden sculpture with a gigantic cock in their window. So I have more right to tell them to clean up or get out than they have to tell their critics, but I choose not to. I do choose to emphasize for those unfamiliar with it that the magic of San Francisco is not just that sex, per se, doesn't scare typical residents as much, but also that all types of people share its roughly 47 square miles [not the 49 of legend]. The true "character" of the Castro is only porn and dildos to those who should not be rearing children, but ARE still children themselves—without having learned that there is a time and a place for everything. We should teach our children THAT, as well as a respect for their bodies and sexual expression that goes deeper than any fist. Then perpetual adolescents like these shop owners will go out of business simply because no one is particularly interested in their Disneyrotica.
Posted by: Leland | Apr 24, 2006 9:49:48 PM
Geh. I watched "The Trouble With Gay Men" a few weeks ago (got it from gay-torrents) and honestly, if you haven't seen it, its one of the most laughable and pathetic things ever.
You know why it bothers our intrepid narrator that gay men are shallow and don't like old fags? Because he can't find a pretty young twink willing to fuck him. That's about the jist of the entire hour and a half or so. He clearly states that he is attracted to pretty young boys, and pisses and moans for about ninety minutes that none of them want anything to do with him. Boo fucking hoo. Of course I don't see him chasing any pudgy, poorly-dressed, middle-aged queers. He's just as bad as the people he chastises; worse, because he is a hypocrite to boot. Am I shallow? I guess so, if not wanting to have sex with someone who is unattractive and twice my old makes me shallow. But at least I don't kid myself about it like this character. A forty-year-old who complains because nobody, including himself, will fuck a forty-year-old doesn't get much sympathy from me.
The thing that really left me wondering was who edited this. He narrates and is ostensibly the "creator," but I still find it hard to believe that he would be stupid as to not understand what a pathetic, whiny, bitch he comes across as. And I am furthermore baffled that he doesn't see they absurdity of complaining that nobody wants to lay him, when he himself refuses to lay those like himself.
Posted by: Gander | Apr 24, 2006 10:46:02 PM
The only way to make straight society stop accusing us of being obsessed with sex, looks and drugs is to do less of all three than they do.
That gay skater is so gay he's revolutionary. Post some of the revolutionary things he's said. I just wish he wasn't so ambigious about his exuality. Damned homophobia.
Posted by: Chad Hanging | Apr 25, 2006 12:17:54 AM
ACT NORMAL! THEY'RE WATCHING US!
Posted by: Chad Hanging | Apr 25, 2006 12:54:44 AM
I caught the last half of Fanshawe's documentary last night. Seemed to me he kept going on and on about how gays need to move beyond being camp, and yet in every shot (especially his posed interview sittings ... legs crossed, hands folded, flouncy shirts) he couldn't have been more camp if he was wearing a tiarra.
Stereotypes denouncing stereotypes.
Posted by: bob | Apr 25, 2006 7:36:08 AM
You've all made very good points about these subjects...but all this talk about stereotypes under a photo of Johnny Weir in a swan costume. I just can't stop laughing.
Posted by: basis4insanity | Apr 25, 2006 10:05:52 AM