Quote:
Originally posted by philgump
So am I out? Well MaggieL I guess I just don’t thing you earned the right to know.
|
Wow...hit quite a nerve with that one.
By "out" I simply meant is your queerness a big secret that you are at pains to conceal (which is absolutely your right) or not. In a discussion of how queer folks relate to society I think it's an important thing to know; because it definately changes your point of view.
If you truly don't know what "out" means, let's try some examples: Ellen de Generis is definately out. J. Edgar Hoover was not. Now, there's a fairly broad spectrum in between, of course. I think how cranked up you are about answering that question says a lot...even though what you say suggests to me that you are not totally "closeted", which would mean that to my way of thinking you're out.
Interesting that you introduce your lifepartner as "your partner"; my lifepartner and I used to use that phrase until we discovered that many people thought we meant "business partner". "Roommate" doesn't always convey the idea of a comitted intimate relationship either.
Again, you've got a right to be as open about your own relationships as you like. As do other people. Perhaps in a perfect world, no one would care what your sexual orientation was, but the woreld is far from perfect, and being queer isn't purely a personal issue, it's political too.
That "are you out or not" is an issue is another indication of why "it's not the same thing to be queer"; in general, straight people don't conceal their relationships unless they're cheating on someone or otherwise banging someone they shouldn't--like the boss, ferinstance. Of course, queer folks keep that kind of thing on the QT too.