“On its surface this doesn’t have anything to do with South Asian Americans”

Even beneath that surface it has a weak, tenuous link to being about desis, at best. But I don’t think that matters because I’ll admit even though it’s not news about desis, it is news for desis – well, some. I think SM can learn from the /. motto “news for nerds”. Replace nerds with desis – the predicate is anyways flexible. The important part is the preposition ‘for’ instead of ‘about’. News for desis will correlate highly with news about desis, but they’re radically different near their peripheries. You’ll find that news unrelated to desis may still be suitable news for desis – this part SM is good at, at times, like with this article. You’ll also find that news about desis may not be suitable for desis – this part SM struggles with, often.

Consider some of the arguments that periodically rip through sites like Sepia Mutiny over even the term “South Asian”. The gay community is incredibly diverse, but (as far as I know) it doesn’t really have a Dinesh D’Souza figure who denies that oppression. Many South Asians are still denying the existence of a defined community encompassing all the nations and religions of Southern Asia. Some even question whether racial and religious discrimination is really a problem for us in the USA.

Funny, I heard it was barbells, nipple rings and crotch rockets.

At least, in my necka da woods you can have them all.Of course, we are the home of the Nubian Queens MC. (That’s MC as in motorcycle club, for you acronym impaired types

I guess your saying “(to an extent)” in quotes accommodates for the quibble I have with calling the “gay community” a voting bloc, but since you’re encouraging a South Asian analogy, and since I’m not sure what exceptions you had in mind, I thought I’d elaborate on the one I have in my mind:

I think the present-day queer community is also comprised of icebergs, one of which is TheGays (TM). TheGays (TM) are the queers that the mainstream audience knows best and assumes represent the rest of the queer community. In a sense, they are the queer parallel to the “model minority”. These guys are usually rich white men who are very, very, comfortable being rich and white and male in the ways that capitalism/materialism, white privilege, and binary male-female gender roles have always operated… except, of course, in their sexuality

TheGays (TM) iceberg is huge. It is powerful. I’m not saying it doesn’t do a lot of good for the queer community; it most certainly does, and that is why the rest of the queer community rallies around them, making it all look like one big, monolithic political (and even cultural) bloc. But ask a poor, genderqueer, Chican@ immigrant or a poor, gay, black sex worker only a few generations removed from slavery — or shit, even a poor white lesbian with dependents — what he/she/ze has in common with guys like Gill, and, apart from coming together against oppressive heteronormativity, I doubt any would be able to come up with much.

So while the entire community might be a one voting bloc on the legality of homosexuality, gay marriage, and “Don’t ask, don’t tell”, they go their separate ways on other issues. Of course, to most outside of the community (and certainly to many within it), these race, class, gender, ideology, etc. distinctions are trivial, if not invisible. Baby steps, I guess…

Unfortunately true. But the important word is ‘wealthy’ and thus ‘influential’. I wonder, would I ever be rich in that case

I heard that lesbians spend all their disposable income on potlucks, cats and herbal tea.

I am always proud of how politically aware my gay friends are. It is not very common for a random sampling of American to discuss op-eds in the NY Times. Or the ownership of the Tribune group. Or build shrines to Maureen Dowd or give Frank Rich a bear rating. But, seriously, with opression comes the need to be on the look out. Its instinctive.

What would South Asians rally around? Aren’t most of the influential ones wealthy Republican? Looks like we have some house cleaning to do first.

Not as much as you’d think. Do you have ANY idea how expensive weekly orgies are to throw?

Toaster ovens, bah. Designer oven mitts and no-carb recipes are where it’s at.