THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

In a long article in The New Republic ( 10/24 ) Andrew Sullivan subtly and not at all offensively portrays the fading away of gay culture. Bringing in many threads—the death of many in th AIDS generation, the rise of gay marriage, the new ascendancy of lesbians in community roles, the rise of sub-sub cultures ( e.g. 'Bears' ) among gays, the raising of children by lesbians and gays, the politization of many middle-aged gays and lesbians—he argues that 'The distinction between gay and straight culture will become so blurred, so fractured, and so intermingled that it may become more helpful not to examine them separately at all.' Some of the places in the U.S.A. where gay culture is most in an activist '1980's' mode are those places like Nashville where the state is still most oppressive —in the rest of the country, gay has become virtually normal.