I find The Queer Community to be an increasingly bizarre construction, all the more so as the risks of being openly queer decrease and we get a wider range of people — many of whom have nothing in common with each other save queerness — choosing to be out.

Like, people seem really confused about the fact that a large reason why queerness had a specific aesthetic throughout the late twentieth century was because only a certain kind of person was going to come out in the first place.

If you valued conformity and acceptance over, uh, living your truth you were more likely to stay closeted than someone for whom *not* being themselves was incredibly, intolerably painful.

So, yeah, when you have fewer people out, and they’re all bigger risk takers, and they have a shared aesthetic then... yes a community is going to form. But as that community reduces the risks associated with being openly queer, what being openly queer means changes.

There are queers that I am in community with, certainly. But that doesn’t mean there is an overarching queer community, and certainly not one that can speak for all of its members.

Also look at me, I went a whole thread on this topic without mention how Mayor Pete is a major lame-o. I mean, I did right up until now.