Some smart thinking, so I hope she doesn't mind if I quote a large chunk of her:

"Although QHouse is student-organized, I have to admit that I'm a little unnerved by the idea of separating queer students from the rest of the community. I think there's a real danger in extending a binary into a system of 3 or 4 categories and leaving it at that, rather than looking at individuals on an individual basis, acknowledging that biology and culture are inseparable and that the distinction is irrelevant, and confronting the fact that no one can ever fully understand the impulses that drive anyone else. Straight culture offers a lot of ways to avoid dealing with the nebulous nature of our feelings and compulsions, a lot of easy ways to claim a gender identity and criticize others', and I worry that the same cop-outs will crop up in the queer community as it becomes more widely acknowledged and acceptable. One of the great changes we've seen in the last few decades, I think, has been the way the gay rights movement has made people become aware of their own sexuality, question sexual norms on a larger scale than before. I know that to some extent, everything that becomes widely accepted loses some of its subtlety and nuance, but it unnerves me when people throw themselves into new stereotypes in defiance of the old ones. Not that my future housemates are doing that, per se; I don't know their individual motivations. But the idea of isolating queer students does seem to hold its perils."

It wasn't cool to be gay when I entered high school. I had frisbees thrown at me when I left to drive home in the afternoon. I will never forget the sweeping hush that came over the auditorium when I casually mentioned my bisexuality to the drama club. But the exotic allure of lesbianism had seemed to catch like a dry bush in a desert thunderstorm by the time I left the place. I was old news. I wasn't a rebel anymore, not that I had tried to be in the first place, although now people were alternately assuming that my 'choice' of being bisexual had everything to do with fitting in.

I made a conscious effort not to associate with any gay and lesbian organizations at Muhlenberg, nor to go out of my way to inform people of my sexuality. I've only been on one date with a woman since college began, and apparently, I wasn't gay enough for her. Because it isn't enough to just identify yourself as 'gay' anymore; there is a whole political purse-full of accoutrements that come with the territory.

It's funny to see the differing ways in which straight people define gay people, and in which gay people define themselves. And within those categories, the spectrum of different opinions. Gay conservatives - folks who are Amish-like in their gayness and in judging the acceptable level of sexual deviance of their friends - have come full circle in harboring similar belief systems as straight conservatives, although clearly if the two met on the street, the situation would turn Jets vs. Sharks very quickly. Veronica is correct to point out the gang-like persona that the gay community has begun to develop, not dissimilar to any other preceeding American fanatical social movement.

Along with V-----, I see this cult-like anathema towards non-gays to be the supreme downfall of the gay rights movement. As V---'s story unfortunately acknowledges, the gemeinschaft nature of the gay community effectively destroys the purpose of gay activism - instead of revealing gay culture to those 'outside' the circle, the gay community has begun to preach to the choir, and has alienated those who do not adhere to a list of very specific qualifications. To be gay is to be part of an elite circle, where displaying the depths of one's 'unique' and 'god given' sexuality has become the new version of whipping it out and measuring oneself against a ruler. Straight people recognize and label this hierarchy from the outside, labeling people as 'flamboyantly gay', or 'straight-gay'. The gay community accepts these labels, and creates its own. The gay community currently to has more of an interest in proving to itself that there is some sort of Platonic oneness achieved from how gay a person is than an interest in actually liberating itself sexually from the societal pressures placed on being straight.

So, like the hippie movement, I fear gay activism may be extinguished just as pathetically by its own social agenda. At the heart of it all, perhaps an individuals' sexual experiences are not dissimilar enough to warrant any kind of lasting social change. Additionally, sex never promotes just sex - all movements towards sexual liberalism have been a front to forward associated political agendas.

So, food for thought.