OK, queer Dopers, collective question: on an episode of the quickly-becoming-crap Ally McBeal this season, Ally turned down a cute, funny, smart, rich, judge/coffeeshop owner JUST because he was bisexual. I was screaming at the TV, for a number of reasons. (really the straw that broke the camel’s back, in an earlier episode, she broke up with a mentally ill man BECAUSE he was mentally ill, who had declared that she was reason enough to take his medication. Nice messages about both queer tolerance and the mentally ill, David Freakin’ Kelley…)
Basically, my question is thus: I consider myself straight but not narrow, and if I was lucky enough to find someone of the caliber of the character on the show, bisexuality wouldn’t even be a blip on the “potenial problems” radar. Have any of you tomatos ever come out to someone about your bisexuality only to find out they had a problem with it?
That dude was too good for Ally, anyway.
A little persistance goes a long way. Announcing:
“I go on guilt trips a couple of time a year. Mom books them for me.” A custom made Wally .sig!
Cheffie kinda covered that exact Ally episode, explaining that that was one of the reasons he has not come out to his wife.
My current SO, as well as all others in the past, have always been aware of my sexual preferences, I assume I was aware of the past ones, I know I am aware of my current(and forever future) SO’s preferences.
I could not even imagine a relationship where you do not completely know the person with whom you will be spending the rest of your life. It doesn’t seem fair or healthy.
And, I, like Riddles, do not consider a man being bi a reason not to date him, in fact it makes me more attracted. It’s wonderfully sexy to see a man or any person, really, open-minded about loving relationships, sexually or otherwise.
Alcohol and calculus don’t mix. Never drink and derive.
Everyone interested in gay, bi and transgendered rights, take a look at this week’s episode of “Popular” (Friday? Saturday? can’t remember), which was listed in my TV page simply as “transsexual teacher.” I fear more nasty jokes are in store, though I could be misjudging them . . .
By the way, I saw the show for the first time last week and thought it was a hoot.
So, on the way to work this morning (see the CONFESSIONS thread - I haven’t posted there, but I belong among the ‘conversations with invisible people’ crowd), I was considering why these:
squicked me so badly.
I’ve come to the conclusion that it was primarily because my “I yam what I yam” answer has not been questioned before [1] and I don’t much like other people making judgements (which I perceived it to be) [2] of my view of my own sexual identity. PLEASE NOTE: I’m not outrageously offended, I’m not pissed at Esprix, who I don’t think intended to offend, it ain’t that big a thing. I was just trying to figure out why I reacted this way.
[1] Perhaps my answer is more believable in person. Perhaps it’s the difference between RL and E-life and it has happened but I just don’t know it; IOW, if someone’s questioned it before, they’ve done so privately rather than publicly. Perhaps it’s because I don’t think I’ve ever actually been asked this question in this manner IRL, certainly not by anyone whom I don’t know fairly well (those who know me wouldn’t have a problem with my answer).
[2] Perhaps it’s just that I don’t like the word ‘coy’. Perhaps it was a reaction based on my personal history (i.e., age, previous experience with the queer culture, etc) - altho TOCOTOX to get into here, this has some merit, but I think it applies more to the question of why I identify as I do than why I didn’t like the above comments.
But since I wasn’t the only one who had this reaction, it also made me wonder about self-identification on sexual identity issues in general.
So, how many don’t self-identify with ANY of the currently available labels? And why? And what do you do instead? [I know that there has been some of this - for example, since I first heard it used among/by gays, ‘queer’ has moved from being a pejorative to being an accepted, fairly common (I think) self-label. One explanation I’ve heard is that those who call themselves ‘queer’ didn’t like the other titles available at the time. (Another explanation is the political, “reclaiming” concept.)]
Is this more prevalent among certain groups (e.g., ‘bisexuals’, ‘homosexuals’, ‘transvestites’, etc.) or is it spread evenly among the sexual-preference minorities?
Just what the hell does QUEER mean these days, anyway?
Any why would something posted to a public board by someone I don’t know and probably will never meet bug me anyway? This place & you people are weirdly addictive, do you realize that?
Why do I always get so complicated when I think about things? (Don’t answer that! It’s just how I work.)
Oh, yeah, and Esprix - I’d already SAID I didn’t consider it coy, so obviously, I wouldn’t call it that. But I definitely fit in the ‘freaks’ category, by all available evidence, so maybe that will have to do. Pax?
In my world, ‘black’ and ‘white’ are merely extremes in the spectrum of ‘grey’.
Good gracious, no. I did NYC Pride once in the early 90’s, and that was quite enough for me for this lifetime, thankyouverymuch. I think I’m becoming crowd-phobic - just wasn’t my scene.
Alas, I’m being arm-twisted into going to the March on Washington (despite having gone to the one in '93, and also hating that), but the payback is I get to go to the Equality Rocks concert - George Michael, k d lang, Melissa Ethridge, and {sigh} Garth Brooks in one concert. Who could resist?
Have fun in NY without me! (As if that were possible! ;))