Gay Camp
Brutal Hugs tells us about Gay Camp:
Apparently gay camp is more like fat camp. In fat camp, kids are shamed into eating less. In gay camp, they’re shamed into eating less cock. It’s where you send your kids to have the queer beaten out of them.
Here’s one of the Gay Camp kid’s blogs.
Also, the Republic of T rounds up the issue.
On this whole gay camp thing, at first I thought it was sad but found it to be mildly humorous that parents think this gay thing can be treated like obesity (note to my gay readers: this week, is being a gay a lifestyle choice or biological? I always forget). Anyway, I don’t think you can scare the faggotiness out of gays and why you would try to, I don’t know. The kids are confused enough at that age anyway without going to a manly, man re-education center (do they spend their days chugging beers, watching football and hitting women? Or participate in activities aimed at strengthening wrists?). Try, say, talking to your kids. If the kid has no problem with being a homo, then the problem is with you, I would think.
Then again, I do often meet people who claim that they like gay people and have no problem with them. However, if they found out their kid was gay, they’d probably throw a full-fledge manly, man hissy-fit. And there’s also the people who have no problem with gays other than the fact that gay people give them the willies. And, of course, there are raging homophobes who think the gay mafia is trying to turn all their kids into pillow-biters.
You’re not going to scare the gay out of your kids. Either man-up and talk to your kids about it or shut up.
Update: Just realized this is occurring in Tennessee. Another embarassment for the state.
June 15th, 2005 at 9:42 am
My child already told me that he wants to be a lawyer. He has lost all of the shock value from anything else he could possibly tell me.
June 15th, 2005 at 9:57 am
What if the camp works for zach and he is not gay and them becomes a proponent of the gay camp, on his blog?
June 15th, 2005 at 10:12 am
Cube, my guess is that if Zach isn’t gay, he’d figure that out eventually without spending the summer in lockdown. I know a few people that came out as teens only to reconsider it a few years later. It’s a confusing time, and kids have a hard time keeping their sexuality straight.
I also know a lot of gays that thought they were straight. A close friend of mine didn’t come out until after college. When I first met him, he was dating this incredibly hot girl and they had extremely loud sex 24 hours a day.
Another friend of mine was convinced she was bisexual. Now she thinks boys are icky.
Maybe we should reinvent gay camp as a place where we help people realize and admit they are queer. The long journey from confused to gay comes with a ton of grief along the way.
June 15th, 2005 at 10:41 am
I’m not gay, but I’m guessing it’s a little of both. And I’ve never really understood why it matters anyway. To the anti-gay folks, it will make no practical difference. Homosexuality is either an aberrant lifestyle choice that should be condemned, or a horrible genetic disease to be treated and “cured.”
June 15th, 2005 at 10:43 am
By the way, your gay mafia remark reminds me of this. The chalkboard drawing is my favorite.
June 15th, 2005 at 11:09 am
That was done pretty well in “But I’m a Cheerleader”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179116/maindetails
June 15th, 2005 at 12:04 pm
Uncle: stop the presses, Tgirsch and I agree on something. Two things, really, if not being gay counts as expressing an opinion.
Ah, but it does, as your own quote goes on to illustrate:
Bingo. It’s either “curable” or it isn’t. That matters.
June 15th, 2005 at 1:14 pm
I have no idea about the choice thing, I can’t tell on account of I’m not gay, but I sure didn’t choose to be straight. It just happened.
Truth be told, I would not take it very well if I found out, down the road, that my son was gay. That would be very difficult for me. I would still love him and accept him as my son, but I’d probably take a while to get over it. Argh!
There is a natural advantage, as far as I can tell, to being straight: Men and women want different things, and to different degrees, out of relationships. Hence, they tend to restrict the behaviors in each other that can get out of control otherwise. e.g Men over-induldging in sex, and women over-induldging in their emotions, neither of which is healthy. Sex and emotions are of course healthy, but too much of either and you burn out. The few gay men and women I’ve known were serious over-induldgers in sex and emotions. I bet there are exceptions, but it’s simply easier for heteros, because we don’t have to try.
June 15th, 2005 at 1:52 pm
What a coincidence, Ben, that you, a person in a straight relationship, would judge the amount of sex and emotion in straight relationships as being just the right amount. 😉 It’s an especially odd view because the amount of sex and emotions in straight relationships varies all over the map.
I’ve never understood the stereotype about women being less into sex than men. Women are into it. They’re insatiable. You can’t beat them off with a stick– it just turns them on. I know a lot more women that participate in orgies than men. Every time one of my lesbian friends starts a relationship, she spends 24/7 in bed with her new girl. I know more women who are in touch with their seriously kinky side than men. And in every straight couple I know of where one partner wants more frequent sex, it’s the woman.
The only way women differ from men is that they have standards. Women fit sex into a larger social framework. Most of the lesbians I know who regularly jump into orgies do it within a loose group of people that know each other.
June 15th, 2005 at 2:02 pm
BH, I know there are exceptions to every rule, but as a rule, men are far more promiscuous than women. Just ask any straight, medium-looking guy who’s had to try to get laid, or any straight, medium-looking girl who hasn’t.
June 15th, 2005 at 2:26 pm
Brutal Hugger, I’m just talking of norms as I’ve observed them. I freely admit that I might be wrong about people’s sex habits in general.
However, I’m not judging, not in a moral way… the only point I’ll stand by is that over-indulgance in anything is biologically unhealthy. Like my aunt’s dog, he eats too much and he’s fat. No arguing with that. No judgement either. On the other hand, I think you can link biological health and happiness, and most people want to be happy, so there’s a recipe there.
June 15th, 2005 at 2:44 pm
Ben, I agree that overindulgence is unhealthy by definition. What I disagree with is the idea that overindulgence can be correlated with straight or gay communities or with gender. Perhaps I think that way because I disagree with you on what level of indulgence is overindulgence. Plus, I know a bunch of gay men who aren’t getting laid.
Xrlq, I sagree that men are, on average, more promiscuous. I disagree that men are, on average, more likely to want lots and lots of sex.
June 15th, 2005 at 3:10 pm
Xrlq:
I actually think that brings the count of things we’ve agreed upon up to four or five now… the world is a scary place.
I said “or treated.” Plenty of incurable diseases (say, hemophilia) are still treatable. My point was it would still be viewed by anti-gay folks as “a bad thing,” and they would still try to do away with it. Only their method and rhetoric would change, their goal would remain the same.
Brutal Hugger:
Great comments!
June 15th, 2005 at 5:30 pm
>this week, is being a gay a lifestyle choice or biological? I
>always forget
Does it matter?
June 15th, 2005 at 9:04 pm
I actually ranted a little about this last week.
June 16th, 2005 at 12:04 am
From my understanding, as much restriction as a person can tolerate the better. You’ll live longer, and you won’t be less happy, as happiness, when your life is summed up, is a relative thing. By this model, being gay obviously won’t prevent you from being happy, just as being hetro won’t ensure your happiness. How ’bout that?
June 16th, 2005 at 3:50 am
Well, im not gay, but i can say that, at least in males, homosexuality is very commonly caused where the person’s mother was subjected some amount of stress, resulting in the release of a female stress hormone during pregnancy. This hormone blocks the receptors in the child’s brain where testosterone would normally be recieved. Thus the child ends up with a male anatomy but is born with the base brain of a female.
The answer to your question: It is not genetic or choice, it is a medical condition however.
Another thing, i think those gay camps are absolutely ludicrous and offer nothing but emotional scarring for the subject.
June 16th, 2005 at 4:17 am
Also, i forgot ot mention in my last post about the fact that homosexuality and bisexuality may be caused in some cases where the person has experienced severe psychological trauma. generally rotting from an extreme event in said person’s life (rape or other violence) or when the person is very intensely desperate for love or sexual relations. Generally, these causes are rather rare, though.
June 16th, 2005 at 8:51 am
“Does it matter? ”
I don’t think so.
Chris, good read.
June 16th, 2005 at 6:39 pm
The only reason it matters is because it completely destroys the basis for the hating of homoexuals and shows that the idea of ungayifying someone is just plain stupid.