You've got to hand it to Corey Whelan: her distinct voice comes through in the AFA blog.
But you know how it can be with some voices, and sometimes it's hard to even know why certain words and tones tickle the hair on your forearms and make you remember the first time you tried brussel sprouts.
I think I've narrowed it down in this case, though…
So, yes, someone directed me to Corey's latest blog, titled "Happy Pride!", in a mildly inflammatory way: "She said 'gay is the new black' - seriously!"
Now, while Corey may be a "Middle Aged Straight Woman" (at least her boss wanted to buy her a shirt to wear to BrooklynPride pronouncing thus), I might be described as a "40-Something Crooked Woman" -- but I also like to add other descriptors when the time is right. In this case, when I headed to the AFA blog to survey the damage I tried to be a "40-Something Crooked Woman Who Makes Regular Albeit Feeble Attempts at Buddhist Practice" in order to be centered in my assessment, incendiary set-up notwithstanding.
I tried, I really did.
I'll give her this: she did NOT choose to title her blogpost 'Gay is the New Black', as she writes was her first plan.
As I slip-slide into "Who Am I Kidding I'm Really Just A Grumpy McGrumpy (thanks Jason) Rattled & Jaded Mama Who Went There & Did That a Few Times Long Ago" mode, my try at Being Reasonable While Reading Corey was thwarted by the little words that kept leaping off of the page and into my face.
Words like:
'I've never seen so many cute dogs'
'gawd, so many of them were very young!'
'we fell in love with Anthony and Ricky, what a handsome couple'
'I've never seen so many colors worn at once, so amazingly well.'
And admittedly, I bristled a bit upon reading her final admonition that "We have a lot of work to do to make sure... that people know and understand what they can do so that they make the right choices early on, and protect themselves and their futures." Now this hackle-raise is very likely MY bad -- stemming as it does from my "Repressed But Ever-Present Anyway Vigilance Toward Finger-Pointing at the Gay Community In Reaction to HIV's Prevalence" persona (isn't it amazing how 'protect themselves' can be heard as code for 'and stop infecting Us' with just the right amount of historical neurosis?) -- because I'm sure Corey really is referring, rather, to fertility preservation methods like cryopreservation of eggs and embryos.
But see, that's how that works. My history quickly yet grossly informs my perception. Try as I might.
With that Reminder to Self, I am able to nod benignly in Corey's direction this time, recognizing that not all Middle Aged Straight Women have spent enough time among people unlike themselves to be quite over the initial "aren't they cute?" phase.
In time, and maybe it won’t be too much longer, we’ll have a whole generation that was raised from the start living amid people who are “different” in all sorts of ways. We’ll finally have a huge percentage of people who see that there really are more similarities among us, and we’re each adorable in our unique way. We will stop getting giggly at ourselves because “We” are among “Them” and enjoying it (what a surprise!)
And now I realize that, at least for the moment, I am really only “Nearly-50 Crooked Woman Whose Least Favorite Practice Is Right Speech But Who Understands That In This Hyper-drive World Attention Is Attention”…
I should instead be inviting -- encouraging -- all the Middle Age Straight Women (and Men) to visit any of their local Pride activities this month. It’s only a matter of time before I break into “Kumbaya” here at my kitchen table.
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