I wrote:
It's not that I don't think there should be places where gays can go and talk about their problems, I just think the gay resource room could be, I dunno, a bit hipper? It felt so clinical there. There were all these posters about AIDS and HOMOPHOBIA and TRANS PHOBIA, where there could have been art or something else that didn't make me feel like I was in a social worker's office. If you want to create a relaxed vibe, don't make gay students feel like they should all be collectively outraged constantly by the invisible web of white male heterosexist patriarchy. The Queer Resource Room should look like "The Cock" in New York, or the late great "Pony" on Pine, staffed with indie arts fags. This is Seattle, not Albuquerque, can't we have a bit of playful fun with a gay resource room in the center of one of the gayer cities in the country? If you want activism, queer theory, Tony Kushner and all that to be hip again, start with your wall art.
Today, the Stranger predicted the death of the queer resource room in 2009. I can't say I disagree with them. Queer resource rooms have seen their day. With an internet connection, anyone can read about famous queer authors, find out about queer events in their city, and learn about how to protect themselves from STDs.
But I still think these places are important because face-to-face interaction is important to everyone, no matter how advanced they think their webcam is, no matter how good they are at using google.
And if I hadn't met teachers, school nurses and administrators face-to-face who told me they were passionate about fighting for gay rights, who had pink triangles and rainbow stickers on their doors, I doubt I would have felt comfortable enough to come out my senior year of high school and I would have been just another closeted college kid my freshman year.
I think we should try to make them hip. I think we need these places. I think they still serve a purpose.
If the gay community is totally over going to a gay center and reading gay literature, maybe it's because this isn't a really social thing. It's forced interaction, it's awkward, it's sitting down with someone who doesn't know a thing about you except the fact that you're gay (and thus OPPRESSED) and who, no matter what, is going to maybe sound a little bit patronizing towards you.
If these places are too clinical for today's gays, what about creating a space where gays can yell at each other, and laugh and talk about the future? What about a gay salon, like the shitstorm salon Brendan Kiley's obsessed with?
We could talk about how annoying it is that every single gay character on TV is a fucking hairstylist, why every mainstream gay movie seems to end with the lead gay guy dying, why queer activism is so passe on college campuses, how shitty and pointless the Human Rights Campaign is, the state of queer theatre, the state of drag theatre, arguments for and against posting a naked picture of yourself on Manhunt, which gay rights organizations deserve our money, how to help high schoolers coming out of the closet at shitty conservative schools and, of course, what should replace the (now dead) queer centers.
That's just a starter list. And there would be lots of booze, and paper so you could write down your thoughts (and pictures?) while other people are talking, and we'd stick the whole night somewhere painfully hip like, oh, Cafe Presse or the Hideout.
What do you think?
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