X-Other:

I got approached by a petitioner today, no it wasn’t after I went to vote, it was after I checked out a library book at a polling place, just not my polling place.

I was being asked about repealing Amendment 12, Cincinnati’s anti-gay amendment. Unfortunately I couldn’t sign it because I’m not a Cincinnati resident, but it got me thinking again about the concept of otherness, specifically in relation to sexual orientation.

Its been spinning in my head since I watched X2. The whole movie is about “the other,” people who for one reason or another can be segregated from the population at large. The movie shows two realms of thought that of Professor Xavier (meld into the population) or that of Magneto (maintain our separateness) The implied argument is that evil (or the perception thereof) results from separateness.

The thing is good can come from both. We homoattracted people use the word family not because we’re looking to make a political statement, but because for many the gay community is family.

I honestly feel closer to my homoattracted friends that my hetroattracted friends that are not in the gay community.

The unique things about this time is we homoattracted people are demanding assimilation whereas other “others” have fought it. Oh we have or foot-dragging in the community, but overall we’re demanding to lose our otherness to some extent and I think thats a good idea.

Now lets just don’t have any wars like the X-Men. K?