The lessening significance of gay identity.

Question: Is being gay an identity?

David Hauslaib: I’ve said this many times, but inside my bubble the answer to that question is “no”.  In the . . .  You know in the rest of America and really the rest of the world who hasn’t really come to grips that there are gay men and women walking among them, I think it would be foolish to assume that . . . that most people still identify that as a sort of sect or a minority classification.  I think it’s important that we get beyond that.  I don’t think we ever will; but the idea that there is a gay identity means less to me than a young person     . . . than a person my age probably 20 or 30 years ago thought; that everything in their lives as they were coming out or hiding their sexuality was built upon that entire process.  Whereas for me, you know once you sort of come out of closet and, you know, share with other people your true self, you move on from that.  There are things in my life and people like me who have sort of gay parts of their life in a sense.  Maybe that determines where we go out at night.  But otherwise I think we’re leading the same prosperous lives as everybody else.

Question: Do openly gay men and women people carry a responsibility?

David Hauslaib: Yes in a sense – in the same way that I think anybody who is a member of a certain culture bears that responsibility because they’re a human being; bears that responsibility to project the best of themselves.  You know it’s foolish to think that little girls do not look up to Paris Hilton.  And it’s foolish to think that young gay men and women do not look up to adult, you know, gay men and women as an example of what their lives should be leading.  You know I won’t . . .  I think it would be silly to think, you know, the burden falls on every gay man and woman to carry out that message.  But at the same time, you know, you carry so many identities.  I’m American.  I’m Jewish.  I’m White.  I’m gay.  And I represent all of those facts.  And I hope that when I take myself abroad, or to another state, or to another group of friends, that I’m representing the best of all of those

Recorded on: Jan 23 2008