I think some people are afraid of queers for what disturbances they may bring to the neighborhood. Sexuality is so fluid that to build an identity on it is iffy, but nonetheless build we have. Homophobes do assert the superiority of heterosexuality, but I think that some are also afraid that they might be one of us, and that continued exposure to queers might gnaw at their (in)secure sense of heterosexuality.
> i think, in general, there's a lot of sympathy for the idea that
the people opposed to gay struggles, who often do the most damaging
things to queer struggles, are closeted.
And that has turned out to be true in certain cases.
> When queer people are doing it, though, and not hets I think the
argument is something like: well *I* can call others like me what
I want to.
There is a sense that we are looking after our own garden. Also, many of these figures are closeted only in the sense that the public at large does not know that they are gay. Within the gay community, they are known. So it is often a case that we will no longer be their enablers in keeping their sexuality a secret from the outside world while they go about being open in selected areas/places.
> Just because someone argues that something is wrong, it doesn't follow
that, by doing it, they have somehow invalidated their argument.
But often the argument is that being gay is morally wrong. But these people then lead gay lives that must, therefore, be wrong, but out of an irresistable impule they continue to do so. It may not invalildate the argument, but there is some expectation that when a person argues that something is morally wrong that they at least try to live in a consistent way with what they proclaim.
> I suppose, if the goal is to humiliate the target of criticism, but why?
Because one does not want to play hump the hostess or get the guests?
> As you suggest, such humiliation is precisely the sort of thing we're
supposed to be opposed to if we are trying to dismantle heterosexism.
But to out someone is only humiliating if they are ashamed of being gay. And if they are, that is their problem. Noting that someone is gay is like noting that they have blond hair or blue eyes or prefer knits over polyester blends. They have put themselves in the awkward situation where they run the risk of being exposed and humiliated as a hypocrite and a homosexual.
Brian