DisConnected: The Advocate

The gay media has been letting operatorLA down lately. Sure, there are services that keep us up to date on news, but by and large most of the interesting stories and commentary are coming from the queer blogosphere.

Most "gay" publications have taken to the highly annoying trend of straight identification and glorification. Oh how we hate it! Do you remember the days when being queer was subversive and different? We do and we want them back. We may want the same rights as everyone else, but operatorLA doesn't want to be like everyone else. Publications that take to showing straight men on the covers and rarely do in-depth reporting on topics that are actually affecting our community have got to go.

In operatorLA's humble opinion, The Advocate has been riding that line alot lately and a recent post on their website has sent our heads spinning.

In this piece in their "first person" section on their website, The Advocate is doing no good service to our community. Do we need to know that their are self-hating gays out there? No, we can go to WEHO and get our fill of that. Do we need to be informed that gay is a "choice" and that with enough god and will-power we can lead a straight life? No, we can tune into Fred Phelps for that. Do we need to be reminded of the struggle of some of our closeted brothers and sister who don't have the balls to challenge their religious or political views to find a paradigm that fits their lives? Maybe, but the Advocate hasn't even given us that.

All we get is a letter from a poor, confused, mis-led and attention hungry youth. No commentary. Nothing. operatorLA hates the "ex-gay" moniker more than anything. So you sucked dick for awhile, bully for you! operatorLA has licked clit more times than he would like to remember, but he doesn't go around calling himself an ex-straight. These men and women who are the success stories of the "ex-gay" movement are little more than trophies and propaganda to be rolled out by the Republican Base and Christian Conservative media teams.

And the Advocate has fallen in to their trap by giving them more attention.

The Advocate ;ex-Gays