Predicting the future of being gay: January 10, 1984
Don Romesburg
What does the future hold for gays? It’s a question that was asked by The Advocate long before this issue’s feature article on the subject.
Twenty years ago publisher David B. Goodstein speculated on the future of an organized lesbian and gay movement, asking, “Shall we survive, prosper, or be exterminated?” His “worst-case” scenario was an “extermination” campaign fueled by rising AIDS paranoia and the scapegoating of gays for broader social ills. Gay rights organizations would fail to respond to the crisis, lesbians would continue to separate from gay men, and bands of gay guerrillas would form.
Goodstein’s “most likely” scenario: AIDS would eventually be cured and gay men would “go back to their promiscuous ways”; racial and gender segregation would persist in the community; and nongay politicians would continue to pay only token attention to our issues.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Liberation Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group
