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From: on@hpda.UUCP (Owen Rowley)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: opportunity,the net,and language
Message-ID: <503@hpda.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Aug-85 18:48:37 EDT
Article-I.D.: hpda.503
Posted: Thu Aug  8 18:48:37 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 12-Aug-85 22:31:27 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Hewlett Packard Co. Cupertino, CA.
Lines: 93

*** Replace this line with your opinion .. please! ***

Dear Netland
   So here we are , on a national network that connects thousands of
computer professionals and there are a handfull of people who contribute
to this newsgroup. I don't count Ken Arndt because he doesn't contribute 
he har*ass*es, and annoys but he doesn't contribute. For the most part 
I enjoy the "jason" material but its not really substantive. Occasionally I
see factual reportage of parades, or film fests, or Aids research, but
I dont find dialog or anything resembling real discussion of the issues
that face Gay people living in America today. Obviously the vast majority 
of subscribers to this news group are just readers, I guess this is standard
but it would seem to me that we are missing an opportunity here to take 
advantage of a valuable resource. Often two or more days to go by with no 
postings at all!! Often I need to check some newsgroup that is guaranteed 
daily postings (like net.jokes or net.bizarre) to determine if my notes 
feed has dried up or what.  Look in net.women or net.religion and you will
find a whole different kind of ballgame, but here in net.motss you hardly
ever see responses to the few articles that do offer informative material
worthy of discussion. Too often when a topic starts up , like the recent 
controversy over children and the state control of Gay peoples right to
foster parent, I see replies that consist of whining and bitching.
Perhaps the name motss is too obtuse and there are hundreds of Gay users
out there that don't know it exists on the net.... in which case we need
to get the word out...
Perhaps there just aren't that many Gay users out there, but I doubt that
More than likely its a reflection of closeted attitudes and unwillingness
to be known as Gay in the workplace. We could refer to this special brand
of attitude as *net*itude. And who says you gotta be gay to post to motss
Is Ken Arndt the only non gay who reads this newsgroup? I suspect that there
are plenty of people reading this newsgroup who are undecided about their
sexuality or who would be enriched by open disscusson of what it is to be
Gay in America today. 

Also from the geographical standpoint one might surmise that Gay people
only exist in Boston, and california. ( who knows mayby its true) Though
I suspect that once again this apparently uneven distribution reflects 
closeted attitudes. 

I think that it would be valuable for ROM's (Read Only MOTSS) to be able 
to have access to a newsgroup with informative discussion on the many aspects
of what it means to be Gay and out of the Closet. It would also be valuable 
for non gay readers to hear directly from us about the issues that face us.

I Don't agree with Ken Arndt on practicly anything he says , and I definitly
don't agree with his method or style. But I think that Ken Arndt shows us
an accurate portrayal of the kind of bigotry and missinformed public that
we are gonna have to learn to deal with if we are to live our lives openly
and out of the closet. The slurs and stereotypes that Ken throws around are
not the product of his stagnant imagination, they are deeply ingrained in
our cultural experience. Those of us who are priveleged to live in areas 
with a well developed Gay press know that we are involved in a struggle for
our lives that will only get more difficult before it gets better. We don't
need Ken Arndt to tell us that large segments of American Society would like
us all to crawl back into our closets and die from our "so called perverted"
sexual practises. And it doesn't take a brilliant mind to deduce that before
the AIDS crises is over there are gonna be a whole lot of Ken Clones blaming
Gay people for inflicting AIDS on the nongay population. Unfortunatly the
american public does not get the in depth coverage of the latest AIDS research
nor does it get accurate reporting about the fact that AIDS is epidemic amongst
some hetero populations in Africa. 
This network is a new Media, perhaps the only media where the individual has
the opportunity to adress everyone else and still maintain a low profile.
Even if you are so closeted that you feel you cannot reveal yourself at your
workplace you can ask someone who posts regularly to forward your anonymous
opinion.(no guarantees I guess but it might be your first opening to becoming
a complete human being) If you have root access its no problem to create an 
anonymous acct to post with. Computer networks are marvelously anonymous 
creatures in themselves in that you can reach deep levels of communication
without having to risk close personal contact. I used several BBS systems 
here in the Bay area when I was first coming out and it provided me with
many hours of theraputic contact with others without ever once having to reveal
my self to any one on a personal level. After getting used to myself as a Gay
identified person on the BBS's for six months it was a relativly easy transitionto integrate myself back into the world of the living. 
To get back to my main point....there are a lot of things we could be discussinghere that could provide valuable resources for us all, Gay and non Gay alike.
I know that this letter is pretty long as it is but I would like to introduce
a topic that is important to me. (just to get it going OK)

I have taken care in this posting to avoid using the word straight...
For one thing I'm not bent or broken (least i wasn't last time I looked)
and since I'm writing I will use the terms I like which are Gay and non-Gay.
Net.women has had a lively discussionabout pronouns and gender identification
and I think that the concept of labeling by sexual preference fits right in
to all the points being made over there on that subject. perhaps you might
have some interesting insight about how words and labels... like Gay and Fag
or Queer etc etc... create the reality of our situations. Some Gay men 
habitually refer to each other as "she" or as "girls".. 
Can we talk????
well enough for now .. Thanx for reading this far, and I hope that this will
all be taken in a positive manner.
LUX .. on
Owen Rowley
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