Brody's Scribbles... The fact that the bitter old queens who haunt The Advocate might not think so means little......

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Dec 8 | Hmm... I'm actually damn near the age where I could possibly be termed a "bitter old queen," after all, I am 50 and will be turning 51 shortly. Now, that particular headline was ripped from a comment on Advocate.com's piece on Joy Behar interviewing Levi Johnston yesterday. Young Levi's second set of photos for PLAYGIRL were released Monday and he's making the chat show rounds drumming up publicity.  I read through most of them, laughing as I did so, never ceasing to be amazed at how pithy sounding some of the Gay community can be. [Linked Here] Apparently, some of the commentators aren't favorably impressed with him.

Which got me thinking. One of the complaints that I keep hearing from the younger set in the LGBT community is how misogynistic the elder Gay men are. (Those over age 45.) About a month ago, I asked a good friend who runs a popular Gay website to conduct a poll:

Are Gay Men too Misogynistic? (answer all that apply)

Do you feel that there is too much emphasis placed on Gay Men instead of all persons that are homosexual in adverts, news articles, discussions, (on & offline)?
Do you think that Gay Men are less accepting of Bisexual Men than the straight men are?
Do you think that too many Gay Men act feminine just to prove that they are Gay?
Do you think that Gay Men are less tolerant of Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgendered people than heterosexual men are?
Is the public face of Homosexuality a 'Whites Only' club?
None of the answers above is suitable for me. So I will tick this box to be counted

Current Results

If you click on the current results link, you'll notice that there's a large percentage that generally feel that there is an overload of misogynistic characteristics in the Gay community. Now, to be fair, there's a very small group of participants thus far, and of course its completely unscientific, yet it still points out that the younger folk may have a valid argument.

Then there's this I'd like to throw into the mix. In this age of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, IM/Chat, and texting, have those of us over 45 years of age really turned into bitter old queens because the times are changing so fast and at a pace exponentially explosive in growth due to technology that we feel left behind or excluded?

As the LGBT community is transiting into a much more accepted part of society than ever before, even with the challenges the community still faces in the fight for equality, maybe those of us of the older generations are in fact becoming bitter old queens.

I see young men and women walking down Connecticut Avenue here in Washington D. C. holding hands and kissing. Thirty years ago when I was around that age you'd never see that outside of say a "Gay" enclave like The Castro, or Christopher Street in the Village. I see battles over the "pink" dollar by mainstream companies via adverts & advert campaigns that target the LGBT community directly. Even Gay Marriage is becoming more widely accepted, NOT totally of course, but the war is being won slowly battleground by battleground.

Finally, a straight kid and conservative from a heavily Republican Party dominated state has no problems being a Gay Icon. So while some old queens mutter and moan, progress is advancing. You know what? Maybe we oldsters need to rethink things eh?

Levi Johnston   Photo By PLAYGIRL.COM