Why Nothing Works by Marvin Harris

Author:Marvin Harris
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: A Touchstone Book
Published: 1981-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

And they did come out. More accurately, they poured out. Bewildered straight America suddenly found itself living alongside a homosexual second society, a segregated parallel social world that had sprung up in every large city and many smaller ones, that involved several million men and women, hundreds of organizations, and billions of dollars’ worth of businesses. By 1980 the United States and Canada had acquired the largest, best-organized, and most powerful homosexual minority in the history of the world.

The most significant feature of the gay community is what researcher John Lee calls its “institutional completeness”—the ability of contemporary liberated gay men or women to go through life using businesses and services dominated by or dedicated to homosexual needs. Here is Lee’s description of how a homosexual citizen can make use of gay institutions in any large American city:

A gay citizen . can buy a home through a gay real estate agent familiar with the types of housing and neighborhoods most suitable to gay clients. He can close the deal through a gay lawyer, and insure with a gay insurance agent. If he is new to the community and cannot ask acquaintances for the names of these agents, he can consult the Gay Yellow Pages, a listing of businesses and services which is available in many larger cities. Or he can approach a typical source of connection with the gay community, such as a gay bookstore, or he can consult a local gay newspaper or periodical. From any of these sources of information he will also learn where he can buy lumber and renovating supplies from a company catering to a gay clientele. He will find gay suppliers of furniture, houseplants, and interior decorating. He will find gay sources of skilled labour or gay cleaning services.

Having moved in, our gay citizen can clothe himself at gay-oriented clothing stores, have his hair cut by a gay stylist, his spectacles made by a gay optician. He can buy food at a gay bakery, records at a gay phonograph shop, and arrange his travel plans through gay travel agents. He can buy newspapers and books at a gay bookstore, worship in a gay church or synagogue, and eat at gay restaurants. Naturally he can drink at gay bars and dance at gay discotheques. He can obtain medical care from a gay physician or if he prefers, a gay chiropractor. If he wishes to remain entirely within the gay culture, he can seek work at many of these agencies and businesses, but he will have to bank his earnings at a nongay bank, * though he may be able to deal with a gay credit union. He can contribute money to tax-deductible gay foundations, participate in gay political groups, and enjoy gay-produced programs on cable television. To keep him up to date on everything happening in his gay community he can telephone the Gay Line, which is updated weekly.

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