You will be assimilated. Now that everyone is basking in their post-Pride glow; it’s an appropriate time to predict what all of our political success will mean for our community by 2024. After all, the 40th anniversary of San Diego Pride was more than a party, right?
I celebrate those who were able to just enjoy the hard won freedoms that have been achieved over the last half century. It was so nice to see the young twenty-something couples steal kisses as they walked hand in hand down University; and the female illusionist who had broken a heel but improvised with the help of a little duck tape; and a proud transgender person chatting on a corner with friends; and a group of vets and active military swapping stories about being LGBT in the military; and even the preppy LGBT person in their pleated khaki shorts and polo with an upturned collar. They are all us.
By 2024, we will be something completely different. Let’s take a look at what the LGBT community will look like in just a decade.
Marriage and adoption
Marriage will have proven to be the watershed moment for the LGBT community. Everyone will be able to get married across the nation by 2024. The Supreme Court will have ruled that there is no compelling reason to deny same-sex marriage couples the right to marry.
Same-sex marriage will open up the floodgates for adoption. Since our marriages will be legal, we should have the same rights as any married couple to adopt. While same-sex marriage rights will not be available in every state, same-sex couples will adopt in other states and move to non-adoption granting states, teeing up another fight in the Supreme Court. Which we will win.
In the end, marriage will be the equivalent of the desegregation of the military by President Truman, which began the fundamental change of the African American experience in the United States. Obama will be the civil rights president of the millennium for his pivotal and unparrelled work on LGBT rights.
Bye, bye gayborhood
Signs that the gayborhood is waning have already been happening in cities across the country and San Diego is no different. Traditional wisdom says “follow the gays” when it comes to real estate. The LGBT community beautifies a neighborhood and then is encouraged to leave by economics. Those who made the investment to improve the gayborhood take the money and run. Who could blame them, you make an investment in a $250,000 property 20 years ago and it’s now worth $1.5 million; for many their home is a retirement nest egg.
With each sale, a new straight couple may move in and often then comes the baby carriage. Nothing wrong with that, but the overall neighborhood begins to change and so do the economics of renting. Rents go through the roof and many LGBT people are forced to start the process in another neighborhood.
We can already see the Hillcrest flight to North Park, Golden Hill, University Heights and beyond. The diaspora of the LGBT community will lead to a less dense population of our people throughout San Diego. There will be less of a concentration of LGBT central city and more living in the suburbs with great schools, easy access to the beach and outstanding shopping. After all, LGBT people with children have different priorities than a single eager to mingle. But what about the bars, you ask.
LGBT bars and clubs
While the concept of exclusive LGBT clubs has also been waning for years, in the next decade the concept of a truly mixed bar will finally be realized in America. While it might still be a foreign concept in a place like Jackson, Miss., the vast majority of Americans will be cavorting with the LGBT community in every environment.
I am old enough to remember when LGBT bars/clubs in meccas like L.A., New York and San Francisco required three to five pieces of identification from non-whites, drag queens, transgender people and perceived straight women. San Diego was no different. Bars were intentionally segregated. As the civil rights of minority groups took hold, the broader LGBT community reacted and the discriminatory practices were eliminated. The result in 2014; fully integrated bars. The drag queens that were rejected entry now headline, bars have Latin and hip-hop nights, straight couples dance along bears. Everyone is welcome.
Young LGBT folks already are partying with their straight friends at straight clubs and vice-versa. This trend will continue and in 10 years the LGBT bar as we know it will be a thing of the past. Think Urban Mo’s meets Uptown Tavern meets Gilly’s. While there may be a handful of totally straight bars, there will be no LGBT equivalent. We will welcome those that helped us achieve full equality; after all it is only right. Resistance is futile.
LGBT culture/youth culture
The LGBT community has always been considered a culture that loves beauty in all its forms but none is greater than the beauty of youth. With the aging of the general population, baby boomers have stepped forward and said we are vital people who lead active lives. The same has happened in the LGBT community. Just two decades ago, if you were 40 years old and LGBT, the expectation was that you go away and blend into the woodwork. Oh how I wish Nicole had listened. But I digress.
The advent of bear culture is steeped in the rejection of the concept that LGBT culture is youth culture. Whether it is the embrace of their natural chest or back hair, to the celebration of their expanding bellies, bears have their fun just like the shaved twinks at Rich’s.
LGBT people over 40 are not blending into the woodwork, they are taking their rightful place in the community; leading the community because of their vast amount of experience in all aspects of life. This is not Silicon Valley; just because you are 22 years old with an idea does not make you the next Mark Zuckerburg. In essence, experience will once again be valued (except in high-tech).
At the beginning, the LGBT community had no choice but to take young leaders who were enthusiastic and had nothing to “lose” by being openly LGBT. Today, what the LGBT community has come to value is experience and those are the leaders that will emerge as our full equality is realized. Gone will be the LGBT organizations and activists that make a big splash but their true value to our movement is drawn into question; glitter bombing, chaining yourself to something, even “gatherings” on the Mall in Washington. No more, “let the young people take over, they have great energy.” It will be more like “let’s identify those young people that can be mentored into more senior roles.” Roles that are earned, not bestowed upon someone like a crown. That’s right the experienced activists will be running things, some of whom are the activist young turks of today. Many of whom will be elected officials. The LGBT community will be just like the real world, where experience counts. Disappointingly, there will not be an LGBT president in the next decade.
Divorce
With marriage legal across the nation by 2024, there will be divorce and fractured families. Just like the broader community, same-sex divorces will be just as divisive and gut wrenching as everyone else’s. Friends will choose sides, children will be shuttled between two parents for the holidays, awkward encounters with an ex-spouse will abound. You will be assimilated.
Pride
Pride will lose all of its political undertones. For some in California that has already happened. Californians have the most LGBT protections than any other state. Employment Non-Discrimination, got it. Transgender protections, got it. Marriage, got it. Adoption rights, got it. LGBT history taught in schools, got it. Housing equality, got it. Reparative therapy ban, got it. You get the idea.
The political undertones of the San Diego Pride parade are really only about coming out for some and federal protections for every LGBT Californian. Federal protections desired include immigration rights for spouses, improved same-sex recognition across federal agencies and the ability to donate blood. These were the political issues and statements that many were marching for in this year’s Pride parade.
By 2024, the Pride parade will be nothing more than a St. Patrick’s Day, Veterans Day or San Diego Big Bay Balloon parade. Few, if any, political undertones because we will truly be free.
Equality means equality. To achieve equality much of what you value today may change fundamentally. Or be adopted by the broader community. Just look at how African American culture has been adopted by the broader community. How many gay men are wearing their baseball caps cock-eyed on their heads? How many are adopting the vernacular of African American women? How many people have said “my homie”? You get the idea.
The first time one of your straight male friends says “Girl!” you will fully understand that resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. In 2024, we will be them, at least the good progressive them.
STAMPP CORBIN
PUBLISHER
San Diego LGBT Weekly
