Gay is Good, Labels are Not

Like Jayke, as I read Shelley's article I was at first very surprised by her "extremism." While I can't necessarily agree with all of her ideas, there is an overarching concept that I find very appealing. For instance, I don't necessarily believe that being a homosexual is about simply being in "revolt against the sex-role structure and nuclear family structure." But I can say that as a person who's life is greatly shaped by denying majority rule, maybe this could carry weight for some. I also love her statement about being a person in private and a homosexual in public. Rather than saying that we (radical/non-radical gays) should have others get in touch with their "inner homosexual" (which I do believe exists) we should just all be people. We need to get past all the labels and all the bullshit of society and just be people. Drop the characters and the pretending and the trying and just be a person in a community of people where all differences are seen as a part of being a person.

What purpose, what positive purpose, do labels serve? Why should we even try to find a label for something as complex as who we are and who we are attracted to? For instance, I don't truly consider myself to be bisexual and attempting to find the right label has been utterly exhausted. I am attracted to people. I am attracted to a person's mind (which is now known as being sapiosexual) more than any physical characteristic. I happen to have found the person I want to spend my life with and that person happens to have male genitalia. But it's not his physical appearance that drew me to him. It was his mind and his personality. If he had been a woman or a transsexual, that would not have changed. I may have had more difficulty in coming to terms with my feelings, but I firmly believe that I still would have the same relationship I have with him now. If we talk only physical, though, I am primarily attracted to women. So what does that make me? It makes me a person just like anyone else and I think any other labels are superfluous and should have no place in our lives.