We Might Just As Well Go Back In and Close the Closet Door

From Towleroad, a provocative story, but not in the way you might think. I think Andy Towle asks some good questions:

Are the gallery's actions indicative of a broader double standard in our culture when it comes to sexually-charged male imagery? Does a photographer (McGinley) who has been the subject of a solo show at the Whitney Museum deserve removal from a gallery's walls on the chance that a parent and child might stumble upon them? Was it shameful or responsible of the gallery to censor part of its exhibition to appease a current segment of the public?

I have my own thoughts on this, which boil down to "take responsibility for your own children." The world would be a lot more habitable if people would explain things to their kids instead of hiding them. We might even wind up, eventually, with some adults who are real grown-ups.

In a slightly larger context, it's too much of a pattern with the broad outlines of movement politics these days: the national organizations are too interested in "getting along" with people who don't really care about our rights to begin with. In spite of the Andrew Sullivans in the community gleefully chronicling the demise of gay culture, there is still a lot of it out there, and I think it needs to be nurtured. Let's face it -- if we're just like everybody else, why bother with us?

Here is the exhibition site. There is some really good art here. And there's some that's just OK. That's pretty much normal.