There’s a few things of backstory I want to mention about my 100-word story this week.
- It’s somewhat autobiographical. I was nervous about going to a predominately gay club myself as a 30-something adult. It’s illogical – I’ve known GLBT people most of my adult life, and it’s never been an issue. I even went to a predominantly gay club (I can’t remember the name) in San Antonio when I was training there. It wasn’t until someone pointed it out that I realized exactly how homophobic (and stupid) that fear was. Now I’m happy to say that like Rupert, it’s not an issue for me any more.
- I liked the Police Academy movies. The “Blue Oyster”, featured in several of the movies, recently came up in conversation. I laughed then because I guessed I was supposed to, but was young enough to not really know why it was funny. Now I’m old enough to not really know what about it was supposed to be funny. It just comes across as offensive.
- I love it when the less-powerful remix the tools and symbols of oppression to make them tools of self-empowerment. So it would be totally awesome to have a club like the one described in the story.
- I really love it when you find pockets of people getting their geek, freak, weird, or whatever on in the most fun-loving awesome style… right in the middle of homogeneous conformityville. Dayton’s kind of like that, as was my hometown.
- I’ve always liked the YMCA song.
So that’s the spirit of my story. It occurred to me after I sent it off that it could be taken as playing to stereotype instead of playing with stereotypes; hopefully this clears things up. Rupert learns what an ass he was being, and gets over himself.
Now if you haven’t yet, go sign the “It gets better” pledge, and at least donate to good folks like PFLAG.