Gay Communities as a Subculture

Gay as a Culture

The gay community is a loosely defined grouping of gays and gay-supportive people, organizations and subcultures, united by a common culture and civil rights movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality. Gay activists and sociologists see “gay community-building as an antidote to heterosexism, homophobia, sex-negativity, and conformist pressures thought to exist in the larger society” (Kurtz). In other words, as the gay culture expands and becomes more recognized and accepted by the world, that process itself will help extinguish the hate and judgements towards gay culture.

Elements often identified as being common to the culture of gays people include: The work of famous gay people such as artists, musicians, political figures and historical figures who have been identified as gay, an ironic appreciation of things linked by stereotypes to gay people, and an understanding of the history of gay political movements. The term gay pride is used to express the gay community's identity and collective strength.

Gay pride parades provide both a prime example of the use and a demonstration of the general meaning of the term. Pride parades for the gay community are events celebrating gay culture and gay political movements. The events serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage.

Gay culture has also adopted certain symbols for which gay people are identified and by which they demonstrate unity, pride and shared values They also communicate ideas, concepts and identity both within their communities and to mainstream cultures. Some of the symbols present in the gay community that are used as the “gay acceptance” symbols are the Greek lambda symbol ("L" for liberation), triangles, ribbons, gender symbols, and one of the most internationally recognized symbols, the rainbow flag. The flag does not depict or show an actual rainbow. Rather, the colors of the rainbow are displayed as horizontal stripes, with pink at the top and purple at the bottom. It represents the diversity of gays and lesbians around the world. Pink stands for sexuality, red for life, orange for healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony and violet (purple) for the soul.

However, not all gay individuals consider themselves part of a gay community. Gay culture, or sometimes also referred to as homosexual culture, is often regarded as constituting the individuals who have come out or emerged from the closet and are openly pursuing a gay lifestyle. Emphasis is laid on the self-identification of the participants as "gay" or “homosexual” and on their common interests (same-gender sex, opposition to homophobia), artifacts (the rainbow flag, publications, jewelry), and values (sexual autonomy, social pluralism). In this sense, not all gay men identify by or affiliate with the gay culture and thus, the homosexual subculture is much smaller than the aggregate of those actually engaging in homosexual acts. Reasons for this kind of hiding-in-the-closet acts can include geographic distance, unawareness of the gay subculture's existence, fear of social stigma, or personal preference to remain unidentified with any sexuality or gender based subcultures or communities.

The myth that being gay is a lifestyle is insufficient to explain what a homosexual’s life is like. Myths are not only inaccurate but they also portray stereotypes that are damaging. For instance, the myth that all homosexual males engage in activity such as “The Tearoom Trade” (sex in public restrooms) is simply not true; actually gay men that exhibit such behavior represent only a very small minority of the gay culture. These men are in fact heterosexuals with closeted gay tendencies because of their self-denial. Society however, stigmatizes these acts as exclusively a male homosexual activity. Stereotypical beliefs such as all gay men are very promiscuous, are pedophiles, have short-term relationships, and are drug and/or alcohol abusers are very inaccurate and degrading to any homosexual. Society’s generalizations of homosexuality make it difficult for any outstanding citizen that happens to be gay to be seen as anything but a pervert. The stigma surrounding homosexuality affects both the formation and management of homosexual identities. We need to keep in mind that gay men face societal and personal rejection. The stigma of being “a fag” causes many men to question their own masculinity. This is a socially constructed viewpoint that a male cannot be a man if he is gay. Acceptance of oneself as being gay is a life-long process. Society still holds many stigmas of what “a fag” is or does. This directly affects a person who is attracted to the same sex and therefore internalizes it as wrong. To overcome these barriers one must find inner peace and accept themselves for who they are. They must construct their own perception of homosexuality that is acceptable to them, and not give in to demeaning stereotypes.