Sins of the Elders
A recent Gallup Poll revealed a much higher percentage of Gen Z identifies as LGBTQ — yet the percentage is pretty damn low. Should we be grateful for incremental progress?
I just read on Logo’s IG account that a brand new Gallup Poll found that 5.6% of adults identify as LGBTQ, up from 4.7% in 2017. The “overwhelming majority” say they identify as bisexual. Gen Z (born between 1997–2002) is the “queerest generation by far” counting 15.9% of respondents ticking off the LGBTQ box. This generation qualifier seems truncated by 5 years (I thought Gen Z went to 2007) but they may not be deemed be of age to qualify themselves as of yet.
According to hard science gender is a social construct, and thanks to the Internet, kids without the emotional support they need at home could at least potentially gain access to information that can help them understand what it means to be non-binary. As a lifelong “hag” and ally GenXer who brought a couple of (young) GenZers into this world I can only hope that this incremental progress shows promise, but I’m a little bitter that we still have to celebrate incremental progress. It’s about fucking time more youth feel marginally safe enough to live their lives and fly their flags, yet I’m continuously discouraged when I consider how far we have yet to go.
I can speak only as a witness who likes and loves many queer people but it was different for my generation. Between threats of discrimination, violence, and AIDS, it was a huge act of bravery to just be who you were. I’ll never forget the night I stumbled home early from Pyramid only to wake up to a sea of cops in my dorm room in Union Square and learn our friend, who stayed just a little later, was beaten to a pulp in the park while walking home. I won’t get into the roster of friends I’ve lost or what the survivors have been through here and today. But the point is, even though we’ve come so far, we can’t forget this shit still happens every day.
For a fish-eye glimpse of what it meant to come of age in the 80s, “It’s a Sin” the trope-laden yet poignantly heartbreaking new mini-series on HBO Max about a group of gay men in the UK during the dawning of HIV/AIDS, complete with their own Mother Teresa ally based on a real person who was in the series. Tragically, it’s become rare that Millennial gatekeepers allow GenXers to write about our own lives and trends, but in this New York Times essay Erik Piepenburg seized the moment well with this essay, using the show as a lede.
Back then, there was little bandwidth for figuring yourself out, or coming to terms with the grey area of your desires — you were either considered gay, lesbian, trans, or straight — and those who fell between the lines also fell between the cracks.
Humans cannot be contained by a demographic check box but, as Jennifer Eberhardt, a brilliant Stanford psychologist and MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” award winner found in her extensive research about race and implicit bias, the brain feels compelled to categorize. “The brain needs to sort everything — the food we eat, the furniture we use, whatever. We also sort people. That sorting can lead to bias; once we have categories, we have beliefs and feelings about what’s in those categories,” she told Time magazine in 2019.
For a glimpse into what it means to be HIV-positive for younger people today, Italian-born photographer named Francesco Di Bennedetto’s beautiful photo-book,“And So It Happened,” was born of a desire to squash lingering poz stigma and what it means to use PrEP with portraits and stories.
Just as Fran Lebowitz told me recently when I asked about progress for women, “If you start from a really bad place, it takes a long time to get to a better place. But let me assure you — and I say this without any happiness — it is a lot better than it was when I was young.” Word.
Read Me For Filth
Haunted by niggling, negative thoughts? Aren’t we all! Hello, pervasive pandemic trauma! I interviewed a handful of psychologists and OCD experts to write this feature for Shondaland about how to cope with intrusive thoughts. What I found out was a great relief.
Also for Shondaland, I shared 6 of the best foreign Language TV shows streaming right now. As if there’s enough English content to keep up with our thirst for content in this relentless quasi-quarantine.
That’s it for now, kids. Stay gold!
xo
