From the Desk
The Many Dimensions of Community
Community has dominated OIA’s priority list over the past month. We have improved our Web site and are now updating it almost daily and we are posting on our blog, Outloud just as frequently. We are doing this to keep the LGBTQ community better informed and connected. We have also opened up our Web site to host blogs for other groups within our community such as the newly-formed Safe Streets Asheville Project and at no cost to the group. And we have been out attending various events around the region to report on more causes and support the community in person.
Why do we do these things?
We do these things because OIA is first and foremost a community newspaper. As such, OIA’s staff works hard to put the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and queer community first, followed closely by LGBTQ allies in the great community around us. One of the ways we try to accomplish that is by giving voice and coverage to a broad cross-section of the LGBTQ communities of both North and South Carolina; not just the “white-washed-made-for-family-hour-television” version.
Human communities are no longer exclusively defined by the boundaries of four streets adjacent to a particular city block. Many human communities are defined by commonalities like professions, hobbies, religion, and race that can have little or nothing to do with where the individuals live.
The LGBTQ community is defined more by who, or what, we are not: hetero and/or gender normative. And within our community are many other individual characteristics including ones that may be viewed as “undesirable” or might “look bad” to the rest of the community or society in general. Essentially, every community, like every family, has its black sheep or skeleton in the closet.
When The Rubberman writes about the Needle Exchange Program (NEP), he is not advocating or trying to facilitate drug use or even claiming it as an issue exclusive to the LGBTQ community. He is merely bringing attention to the fact that sharing needles is, as it has been for more than 25 years, an easy way to spread diseases including HIV. The Rubberman’s mission in these pages at through his work with WNCAP is to educate folks, all folks, about HIV/AIDS, new treatments and research, legal issues, and safe sex in order to treat, prevent, and ultimately stop the spread of HIV.
At the same time, we would be remiss and arrogant if we did not acknowledge that drug use and addiction is a reality for some members of the LGBTQ community as are domestic violence, racism, classism, prostitution, and other crimes and flaws. None of these are exclusive to our community. They occur in every community.
Out writers may not resonate with all of our readers all of the time. When Chuck Giezentanner submitted his Confessions of a Madonna-holic article for the June issue (coinciding with the release of Madonna’s latest CD), I had to look up of the song titles he cleverly worked into the article. I am not a Madonna junkie. I’m not an expert on pop culture. But I recognize that there are many Madonna fans in the LGBTQ community and that she has been a pop culture icon, in this country and around the world, for over 20 years.
As editor, it is my job to ensure that each of these voices and viewpoints is included in our community newspaper. But I am also aware that some of these images may come across as stereotypes. And while they may be true reflections of some of us some of the time, they are not a full three-dimensional depiction of the entire LGBTQ community.
That is why we have many writers, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and straight with a diverse range of interests and styles contributing to OIA. We know that our community is more complex than the stereotypical “nancy boys” and “dykes on bikes” while at the same time they are also real and integral parts of our community. There is always some truth in stereotypes but stereotypes are not the whole truth or the big picture.
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