What Is "Post Gay" And What Does It Mean?

City Councilman John Duran seems to inhabit a "post gay" world that no one else I know is privy to.  Perhaps he coined this term to describe the disillusion of living with one's head in the clouds while never looking down.  I infer from his "post gay" rant that he means there is no longer any need to take a stand for the rights and freedoms of the LGBT community because said rights & freedoms are suddenly a fait accompli.  I wouldn't try to convince 22 year old Victor Diego of that, who was beaten up & nearly killed on Hollywood Boulevard last July  in what police termed a gay hate crime.  This year, Ohio senate candidate Merrill Keiser, Jr. told a local news interviewer that homosexuality should be a felony punishable by death.  I can't tell if he lives in Duran's "post gay" era or not.  But I do know that 31 American states have adopted constitutional amendments banning legal recognition of same sex unions. I guess that would make them "pre gay" era.  Tennessee state senator Stacey Campbell recently sponsored a bill called "Don't Say Gay", that would make it illegal to mention same gender preference in the classroom & require teachers to inform parents of students they suspect of exhibiting gay behavior.  As of March 2013, 60% of Louisiana thinks being gay should be illegal and Kentucky continues to pave the way for almost unconditional discrimination against gay people.  Iran seems to hang gay people on a regular basis, Senegal's penal code calls for imprisonment of gay people and Senegalese police regularly target gay men for arrest and extortion, as do other sub Saharan African countries that enforce laws criminalizing gay relationships. An Iranian Ayatollah recently referred to gays as inferior to dogs and pigs and said that AIDS did  not exist before gay people.  So we can have our "Go Go Boy" fest on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, but I wouldn't try it in Russia which has enacted very new anti gay laws as of April 8, 2013, or in Lithuania which forbids gay relationships by national law.  (That gives broader meaning to "We are everywhere!", doesn't it?)  In fact I wouldn't recommend a "Go Go Appreciation Day" in Bakersfield either or in Mitch McConnell's Kentucky, or anywhere else in the south for that matter.  They haven't entered Duran's "post gay era" yet and such an event could bring out the worst of the "pre gay era" in them.  When Duran uttered those inane words, I was reminded of 32 year old Mark Carson in Greenwich Village who, on May 21, 2013,  was shot in the face by a maniacal accoster who kept shouting gay slurs at him.  They too still live in the "pre gay era" where hatred of gay people still subjects them to harassment, indignation and often death.  I'm also reminded of a local gay writer, who years ago wrote an article that even then seemed to reflect Duran's current "post gay era" mentality. This writer wrote "When you've won the right, you surrender the fight!"  And I remember thinking "Those are the words of a coward!"  There are now and always have been gay people who experience cruel and hurtful discrimination on a daily basis, outside of Duran's pompous bubble.  They spend lifetimes trying to fit in & many also die trying.  They never experienced Duran's "Post Gay Era" because it doesn't exist any more than there is a post discrimination era for any group or minority  that has spent life times, indeed generations, fighting for equal rights & dignity but never having really experienced or gained them and never having known true freedom in their whole lives.  American televangelists like Pat Robertson & his ilk with followings of millions,  preach & teach hatred for the GLBT community on an hourly basis. 30 American states  can still deny housing to GLBT people. There are no federal laws protecting gays & lesbians from discrimination in the workplace based on their sexual orientation, 14 states have anti sodomy laws on the books as "crimes against nature" & even as we approach 2014, there are United States senators & others calling for the death penalty for gay men & women.  I think John Duran's "post gay era" is presently too futuristic to be perceivable to those of us who live in the real world & experience discrimination as a way of life.  Duran probably would too if he were to venture outside his bubble of delusional grandeur.