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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!bbncca!msimpson
From: msimpson@bbncca.ARPA (Mike Simpson)
Newsgroups: net.women,net.motss,net.singles
Subject: Re: homosexual associations
Message-ID: <922@bbncca.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 28-Aug-84 10:21:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: bbncca.922
Posted: Tue Aug 28 10:21:53 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 29-Aug-84 00:58:11 EDT
References: <4061@fortune.UUCP>
Reply-To: msimpson@bbncca.UUCP (Mike Simpson)
Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma.
Lines: 47
Keywords: homosexual, lesbian, straight

In article <4061@fortune.UUCP> millines@fortune.UUCP (Trish Millines) writes:

>
>     I would like to know why straight people always think of males when
>they speak of homosexuals?  Lesbians are homosexuals too you know!
>
>     Most of the articles I read in the news papers and on the net usually
>refer to male homosexual behavior, but the word "homosexual" itself does not
>mean "male". 
>
>  ....
>
>     I'm tired of being grouped in with male homosexuals when someone is talking
>about gays.  There are alot of things that go on in the male homosexual
>community that lesbians don't approve of and would never practice.  This is not
>to say that I don't like male homosexuals, but if I'm going to be put in a
>category, I'd like to be put in the one I belong in.
>
>     So to repeat my question, why to straight people always think of males
>when they speak of homosexuals?


        Laziness and/or unintendended ignorance, I guess; it's
much easier to deal with a group as a group than to separately
acknowledge the various sub-groups within the group.  It would be
easy (to use an analogy) to say that 'Black people do this' in
discussing certain behaviors that are practiced almost
exclusively by Black males. 

        Of course, this is not meant to condone the behavior you
describe in any way.  I am aware that the proportion of lesbian
AIDS victims to male homosexual AIDS victims is very low. 

        However, if perhaps the lesbian community were to become
more visible (both to male homosexuals and to heterosexuals),
then this tendency to lump the lesbian community in with the male
homosexual community would decrease. 

	Comments?

		-- Mike Simpson,BBN Communications, Cambridge MA
-- 
-- your obedient servant,
   Mike Simpson, BBN
   msimpson@bbn-unix (ARPA)
   {decvax,ihnp4,ima,linus,wjh12}!bbncca!msimpson (Usenet)
   617-497-2819 (Ma Bell)