I thought your discussion on the notion (and the necessity) of community in countering discrimination was excellent.

I think there is a false tension which is perceived between our desire to be treated as equal to straight people (as well we should be), and yet still remain diverse in our individuality (again, as we should be). There is no single representation of a GBLT person, and there could never be, yet there is no point denying that the common factor which undeniably unites us is the fact that we are discriminated against.

If nothing else, it is that shared experience of being discriminated against (to greater or lesser degrees) which, as you rightly say, should be the basis for solidarity and community; the necessary foundation for confronting discrimination and defeating it.

Acknowledging that we are similarly discriminated against doesn’t mean that we are all ‘the same’ and I agree with you that a lot of GBLT people can’t seem to get beyond that. They don’t want to be ‘lumped in’ with people that they ordinarily don’t see as part of their community of social group, so they refuse to acknowledge what every GBLT person is up against.

I believe that, if our founding principle is the demand for equality, then, to a gay man like myself, the fact that a lebian or transgendered or bisexual person is discriminated against, matters profoundly. It is, in the end, merely a different expression of the same hatred, and ought to invoke the same response of protest and condemnation, regardless.

Thanks again Wanda, you continue to surprise and enlighten,

Don x

Love Always

*Beaux Sexual*

You look AMAZING at your Oscar night party.