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Why doesn't the Gay Community have a leader?

Discussion in 'Current Events, World News, & LGBT News' started by ANightDude, Jan 3, 2010.

  1. ANightDude

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    I was just thinking about this, and a thought came to me. Gay Rights has no leader whatsoever. It's more or less a bunch of groups and orginizations coming together to make this. Do you think the gay community needs a real influental leader to get more things done?

    Women's Rights had Susan B. Anthony.
    Civil Rights for African Americans had MLK

    Most successful groups have leaders and such.
    Hell, even N.O.M. has leaders, no matter how disturbing and close-minded they may be.

    Do you think we need one? And why do you think we don't have one?
     
  2. Chip

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    Many people thought that Harvey Milk was the candidate for, and would have become, the leader of the gay rights movement had he not been gunned down.

    I don't know that there's anyone else who is obviously visible within the community with the combination of charisma, political savvy, intelligence, and plain old common sense. And for whatever reason, the gay community seems to have a really difficult time agreeing on much of anything, which is part of the reason why there are so many groups and organizations and so much infighting between them.
     
  3. Phoenix

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    That's the thing. The difficulty would be in a single person successfully appealing to each facet of the gay community enough to convince them all that they'd be a good representative.
     
  4. Greggers

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    I guess its a bit harder for our community. Its like we ate all the other movements, added a few more, then used a slap-chop on them to create even more tiny movements.

    How can one single human speak for every LGBTQIKMOPQRSTUV person :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

    A transgendered person is vastly different than a lesbian, and even in the transgendered community you have FtM and MtF and then either of those could also be gay on top. A bisexual guy is different than a gay guy, and there are varying levels of bisexuality at that. Its very...very....very...hard to have someone pave the way for everyone in our giant umbrella community.

    We dont technicly have a single uniting feature like African American movement and skin color and the women's movement and the vagina. I guess "defying gender normality" but its not exactly the same thing.

    I think its more likely that we get full rights by a slow growing support from straight allies everywhere when more and more people come out in masses. Either that or the L has a leader, the G has a leader, and so on. We already have that to a lesser extent. Ellen may not be moving mountains for her fellow lesbians, but she is invited into america's homes daily when they flip her on TV, and thats a very positive thing for people who dont know lesbians.
     
  5. I don't believe in the idea that a group of people needs to have a leader. No one person can represent an entire group of people.
     
  6. Revan

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    Well in SOME ways, we do have a leader somewhat. The HRC. They generally speak for us, and are doing an okay job at it. Not the most amazing job, but an okay one.
     
  7. Hoppip

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    If we ever do have one solid figure, I'm sure even they wouldn't be "eternalized" as that one figure until long after the "movement" has ended.

    Who knows.
     
  8. Holmes

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    Pretty crap job if you ask me, Solmonese saying he'd be happy to wait till 2017 to judge Obama.

    Anyway, the HRC isn't a leader, it's an organization. They're not a single identifiable person lie Susan B. Anthony or Martin Luther King. But what we do have, more and more, are people like Rachel Maddow or Andrew Sullivan, or many others, who continually take up the issue. I think that accurately reflects the diversity between gay people.
     
  9. Gaetan

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    I've always found our civil rights movement to be an interesting one. The previous ones were all fairly simplistic: all women, all people of color. It was easy to identify who belonged in each group.

    The gay community is unique among minorities in that it knows no bounds of gender, race, creed, or nationality. Maybe that's what makes it so hard for some people to accept...the fact that you can't identify all members by the color of their skin.
     
  10. MusicIsLife

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    I think the gay rights movement is too...multi-faceted? to have just one leader.

    A lot of gay women might look to Ellen as a leader, whilst a gay male might see Harvey Milk to better fit that role. A trans male or a trans female might see someone who is also trans to better fit the "leader" category, and the same goes for a person who is bi.

    I always saw GLAAD to fit that role fairly well, because it pretty much covers everything.
     
  11. beckyg

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    Wow, Greg you said exactly what I was thinking! (!)(!)(!)
     
  12. zzzero

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    Another reason it's hard to put one person in charge of the LGBT community is because half of us are hiding... It's a self-awareness problem as well as a public awareness problem. I heard this in a documentary about closeted (or formerly closeted) gay politicians, If ever gay person were to come out right now, We'd have our civil rights. You can't force people to accept themselves, and that's what makes the whole movement difficult. There are hundreds of gay people who are in the closet and have absolutely no desire to come out. The African-American community, and women had features they could not possibly hide, making them a known established group in the US. People could not sit back and ignore them because they shared a similar physical quality that could not be hidden. We have no common physical quality, we come from an infinite amount of different backgrounds and we're all vastly different from one another. Now If we all came out and rallied in washington, even every super closeted person in the US, we would be a lot better off.
     
  13. littledinosaurs

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    These!
     
  14. Emberstone

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    I elect BeckyG cause she already is like EC's surrogate den mom, looking out for all of us, supporting us in the bad times, and cheering us on in all the time.

    We need to help people see that having a gay child is not the end, like so many people sadly believe. I think alot of damage is done because of that, and BeckyG celebrates and fights for her Son and his Partner. If we can break the stigma, maybe less lives will be lost to suicide of people afraid to be who they are in families and a society that wants to change what cant be changed about them.
     
  15. adam88

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    Very well said. I suppose the one thing we all have in common is the closet, and the desire to leave it.
     
  16. Gaetan

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    So it's settled, then. We shall elect a closet door as our spokesman!
     
  17. adam88

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    An open one, hopefully! :eusa_danc
     
  18. Mister Gaga

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    I'm surprised how nobody talked about Lady Gaga =)
     
  19. Emberstone

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    not a gay leader... not even gay. She however is a ally for the lgbt community, and is a vocal supporter. hardly the first vocal supporter, and hardly the most vocal.
     
  20. Mister Gaga

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    You're wrong Emberstone, she said she's bi, she loves women as well, and had sex with them :wink: