Comments from the publisher of White Crane

I just wanted to share with you all an email that Bo Young, the publisher of White Crane Magazine, sent to me in response to feedback of the podcast. I felt that this email is worth posting for it's powerful content, and for the questions it inspires. I hope you all feel the same.


"Greetings Enrique,

Thanks for writing. What a wonderful project. I'll give the interview a listen when I have some time. But I do have some reactions and since you've been generous enough to ask, I'm happy to give you my impressions. First, I love that you are simply organizing at all. One of the most important things we can do is to realize that we are part of a community of Gay people, and in the context of that community, there is a history. The most valuable thing stolen from any people is their history. If you take someone's history away from them, you can tell them any story at all and they are at your mercy. With that in mind, I think it's critical that young Gay people become aware of the rich history of same-sex loving people. Most are aware of the Greek model, but there are so many different same-sex love stories across time and cultures that it could (and in my case has) take a lifetime to study and understand them all. What comes out of that is an appreciation of the fact that Gay people aren't merely a "sexual minority" but a valuable and uniquely contributing part of functioning culture and healthy community. That's a whole new ballgame when we begin to consider that Gay people actually have as valuable a role to play in society as procreating heterosexuals. These roles are also known as "archetypes." Some of those archetypes include: "the mediator," "the culture-carrier," "the priest/priestess," "the teacher," "the wounded healer," "the contrary," "the clown/jester," just to name a few. When our eyes are opened to these archetypes it's like becoming able to read hieroglyphics or a foreign language, as the patterns become visible. It is nothing less than empowering to understand that each of us has a role to play in society. It is nothing less than deranging for that to be denied us. It is another fact that "history" is the story of the world told from the vantage point of the winners. The loser usually gets written out. We are about reclaiming our history so that Gay people, and society as a whole, can have a richer and more fulfilling future. I would personally also argue that there is an evolutionary role for Gay people/same-sex loving people. Nothing persists in Nature over time and across cultures that doesn't contribute in some manner to the survival of the species. I suspect that some of those archetypes above have some bearing on that, too. I do have one quibble with the project: I would think about a more positive name for your group. Self-labeling as a "sexual minority," to my ear, misses the point. It presumes that all this is about is sex, and clearly it isn't. And it presumes that even if it is all about sex, that there is one main way that constitutes a "majority" and anyone who has studied sexuality will tell you, that is hardly the case. There are as many sexualities as there are people. So "sexual minority" seems to me to be self-limiting. Language, like history, is powerful. Words have resonance in our psyche and our spirits and we need to choose them wisely. I am as tired as the next person of the alphabet soup of the "G-L-B-T-Q-TS-I" community, and wish we could come up with a deeper connection in the language for who we are. "Queer" resonates for me, as it seems to contain the idea of being "contrary"...but for some people that is the Gay equivalent of the "N" word. In any event, there must be another word out there and there has to be a better name for your group. Finally, on a personal note, I would add that not everyone of my generation was "wiped off the face of the earth" with the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Some of us managed to survive. Learning to approach elders in respectful ways and valuing them beyond the immediate and fleeting measure of sexual attraction seems to me to be an acknowledgement that we're talking about, well, something more than who has sex with whom. Old Man Harry Hay (I hope your group knows that name!?) suggested that the bedroom is the only place Gay people are like straight people (to put it in a over-simplified, binary form for a moment) and that it's everywhere else we are different. I suggest it's our task to figure out what those differences are, and learn to cherish them. And offering elders a real place in a young person's life is a gift most older Gay people would be honored to receive, and it would serve as a challenge to be met, too. I know it's why Dan and I do White Crane...for the next generation. Please do stay in touch. Perhaps you might consider writing about how your group functions as a "sanctuary" for GLBTQ youth in your community for our winter issue, which is all about "Sanctuary"?

Cordially,

Bo YoungPublisher/Editorial Director
White Crane Journal
www.gaywisdom.org
White Crane Institute
172 Fifth Avenue, Suite 69Brooklyn,
NY 11217

White Crane Institute is a 501(c)(3) education corporation.Your contributions and support are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. Please consider White Crane for your charitable giving...for the next generation of Gay people.

For 19 Years - The Journal of Gay Wisdom & Culture. An UTNE Independent Press Award Nominee"a literate, intelligent and, at the same time, provocative and groundbreaking-scholarly quarterly of Gay culture."- Lambda Book Report"