What are Words Worth?

As they used to say on Chigley, “Time flies by when I’m the driver of a train ...”
The weeks just keep WHIZZING by at the moment. It’ll soon be time for me to jet off to New York for Christmas and, despite my having been a bit blasé about the “credit crunch”, I’ve had a bad month for handbag and I’m getting a bit *eek squeal* about how much this unnecessary four day extravagance is going to cost me. With the pound to dollar ratio going upsy dutch it’s going to be way more than I’d bargained for and there’s still the Boxing Day sale at Macy’s factor in. GODDAMNIT!!!

I suppose I could save a few bob by staying in but that would be, like, WAY BORING. In fact I’ve recently expanded my social horizon by attending a couple of queer discussion groups – how 80s! The first was actually a bit of a snore fest – Improbable’s Disgruntled and Disgusted proposed to discuss Do gender and sexuality still matter - and if they do, what do we do with them?

The premise sounded reasonable enough but after a ten minute intro assuring us that “everyone’s view is valid” and “anyone who sits at your group is the right person to talk to,” I was starting to feel a bit bilious. It was becoming apparent that the representatives of the Royal Vauxhall Tavern – me, Nathan, Timberlina, Michael Twaits and a few adopted brethren who are always up for a bit of a barney – were really not suited to this world of touchy feely.

As I sat down to my first discourse my doubts became a certainty. Entitled “Should we embrace or reject the clichés?” I was arrogantly assuming this debate would relate to some of my own pet subjects – like the battle between those who celebrate queer stereotypes and those who dismiss them as damaging the public face of the gay community. No such luck.

What we got was along the lines of “Well, you see, like, I do a lot of feminist performance but I have long blond hair so, like, people fink that’s weird and that you can’t really be a proper feminist.” I had an inkling that it wouldn’t be considered “valid” to shout, “Oh for God’s sake get over yourself, you soft tit!”
So instead I rolled my eyes and went to purchase another can of Red Stripe from the bar.

It got better later on when a group of us were sat with Stella Duffy – the host for the evening – who suggested we should organise a similar event on a grander scale and invite representatives from Stonewall to talk about how we can move the queer / gay community forward and stop all the in-fighting. In particular - as it was the eve of the Stonewall awards that were being protested by trans supporters for their nomination of Julie Bindel as Journalist of the Year – we discussed their decision to disenfranchise themselves from the trans community, despite having named their organisation after the event where DRAG QUEENS AND TRANNIES stood up to police brutality and launched the beginnings of Gay Liberation. They should really hang their heads in shame.

My next parlez vous was Gay Mentors, a group that I’m a little bit uncertain about. It’s basically been set up to support people who are going through life crises or are interested in self help, and those who want to mentor them. I don’t actually feel I fit into either of those categories, but I had sod all else to do and Stewart Who and Dickie Beau where involved so I thought, “What the hell?” It turned out to be an interesting event, not least because of the presence of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

I saw a few of the original order in San Francisco at a Gay Pride event I went to there years ago. I seem to remember a few of them whizzing round by the Castro on rollers skates and I was in love. In SF these bonkers drag queen nuns are still going strong; they work actively in the community to promote human rights, tolerance and spirituality. They also raise money to provide grants for events and organisations working in queer or sex positive projects.

There are now orders across the world and I’m not too sure how long the UK group have been operating, their web site is still under construction, but I was fiercely jealous when one of the young guys at the meeting said he’d been invited to join them. WHY DIDN’T THEY INVITE ME??!!

At the moment I feel I’d be much more interested in helping with the work of a bunch of bonkers nuns and having them represent me instead of trusting my civil liberties to Stonewall.