>There has been quibble over the term "community" several times on this
>list, but as hard (even impossible) as it is to write a satisfactory
>abstract definition of "black community" or "gblt community," conscious
>members of those communities go on using the terms very effectively for
>their purposes, and I think questionins of those terms simply aren't in
>good faith.
can you question it in good faith if you're gay? that's the case here.
i have problems with the use of the term. budge was kinda-sorta reminding me of that--and of his objection to it. his nudge at me was a reference to a discussion about "the gay community" among some LBOers on another list, Bad Subjects. I'll let budge speak for himself, but my objection is that it's used to mean culture where being gay/lezbean/whatever means that one consciously and actively participates in "gay culture" -- identifies with it, recognizes its signs and symbols, senses one's identity is deeply attached to participation/membership in that community.
there was an interesting presentation of the issue on this on HBO's _If These Walls Could Talk 2_. The special was a series of three vignettes about lesbians in the 50s, 70s, 00s.
The 60s vignette was about campus lesbians v. townie lesbians. The campus lesbians had been asked to "tone it down" in the interest of preserving their broader feminist org on campus. campus admin threatened to shut the group down b/c it was perceived as too lesbian. The campus lesbians say: fuck that noise and resolve to break away from the group if they insist on requesting that they "tone it down" in the interest of feminist solidarity. They go out on the town to solidify their resolve. At a lesbian bar on the edge of town, they are met with hostility from townie lesbians.
Can you guess why?
It's not because it's a town/gown thing--although there was some of that going on, to be sure. The campus lesbian "culture" or "community" was _very_ different from that of townie lesbians. The story exemplifies the tussle over who gets to define what it means to "be a lesbian."
Kelley