Is division among ourselves our greatest enemy?

What got me to thinking about this is a friend of mine. He's gay and he came over this weekend. Not only is he gay, but he unfortunately is HIV positive (which he is not aware that I know about). But when he came over he's talking to about how much he hates feminine and/or flamboyant gay men. I found myself speaking to him about generalization and about feminine gay men, the same way I do on here from time to time.

And truly, we have so much division within ourselves...some gay people truly hate the drag scene, the transgender/transexual community gets overlooked and then there are so many negative opinions from the gay community regarding bisexuals.

Some of this I'm sure is human nature, but how do we bring ourselves together for a common cause and is our divisiveness our biggest enemy?

Sorry to make your minds work hard on a Monday morning LOL..

Homosexual does not mean homogenous. I share your point however and am surprised when I hear discriminatory, divisive remarks from peole who are first to complain about discrimination themselves.

Insecurity, ignorance and fear fuel the fires of intolerance, and sadly, many of us have all those things at different points in our lives.

I wonder what it would be like if diversity and difference were really valued in society.

These days I'm much more inquisitive if I don't understand something. That involves asking lots of uncomfortable questions. Like I wonder why your friend is so affronted by flamboyant men? What harm does he think they cause?

BTW one of the real benefits that HIV has brought to everyone is the reordering of patient/doctor relationships. Because the gay community was historically marginalised by the medical profession, from the early days of HIV, we organised support, information and treatments and empowered choice. This has forever changed our relationships, positively, with practitioners.

You got me thinking Wickey ... is it human nature to define ourselves in terms of the other, what we're not? Or are we more human because of our differences?

Yea your right...Ha its ok this is a good warm up for all the stupid work i have to do today...

anyways...yea i think you right. I think we should just be accepting of people. I mean saying that you hate an entire group of people is kinda weird...like...just because they are a part of that group. I mean saying that you hate flamboyant gay men is no different then saying that you hate gays. Its the same principle...and if people want change...then they are going to have to get over feelings like that.

Absolutely, even the gay vs lesbains I don't agree with. I really think that segregation from society is our biggest problem. People need to realize that we are not all that different, none of us, gay or hetero.