A healthy way to deal with this, though-which my therapist has strongly advised against-is to start calling those around you your “audience.” “Fans” also works, but the truth is that audience implies a much more generous, symbiotic, artistic relationship between you and this woman who is staring at you at the crosswalk. Sometimes you’ll like it, sometimes you’ll hate it.
As part of the LGBTQ+ community, you will be forced into visibility. The people around you are no longer strangers, commuters, or fellow diners at Chinese Tuxedo. So what are you waiting for?Ī note on how you’re likely to be viewed after doing so. What do the straights have? Chinos and golf tournaments? Marriage and a Volvo? Yep, you got it-being gay is better. The best art too, from the Sistine Chapel to Leigh Bowery. LGBTQ is intended to emphasize a diversity of sexuality and gender identity-based cultures. Interpreted a number of different ways, the title stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and the Q for those still questioning their sexualty. The best fashion, from Thierry Mugler to Telfar. LGBTQ is an acronym that represents the world’s gay community. The best film and theater, from Pink Flamingos to A Strange Loop. We have the best literature, from Giovanni’s Room to Detransition, Baby.
We have more sex than our straight counterparts, we are better at everything than our heterosexual peers (there are no stats on this, but it’s true), and we get to say things like “J’adore” and mean it both ironically and unironically. We get to wear leather without looking try-hard, we get to watch unhinged drag queens fall over in dive bars, and we get to holiday in homes in Tangier owned by “interior decoration gays.” We’re statistically more likely to be chic and fashionable (although some gay men seem to want to actively exclude themselves from this one) and people-literally, like, everyone-are desperate for our approval. Here in LGBTQ+ Town, we get to party until we’re in our mid-sixties, at which point we’re held up as community icons.