Acceptance

I've been saying this from the beginning. The goals of pro-contact/choice MAPs would completely invalidate or overturn a social paradigm that has existed pretty much forever. I think it is a pipe dream to think we, a minority despised above all others, could even begin to affect social policy so profoundly. Our ideas will never be taken seriously unless we already have some degree of acceptance, which is why I don't believe it is in our interest to work towards youth liberation. As I said before, we are not the people who should be fighting for youth lib: it makes both us and the youth lib movement look even more suspect, and holds us back on our other goal of simple acceptance and representation, which I feel is far more important for us at this time.

I fully agree that we have to achieve acceptance as human beings first, and that progress must be made on a step by step basis. However, ignoring or refusing to speak out in favor of youth liberation would be disingenuous, and since our full emancipation is highly dependent upon the future success of this political movement, it would be counterproductive not to speak of its importance. The MAA/MAP movement is not going to be the main people who are carrying the youth lib movement. The great majority of youth libbers (I hope you don't mind that I borrowed that spelling from you) are not MAAs/MAPs, and society will come to realize this.

I think you gravely misunderstand the goals and views of protectionist MAPs like myself. I am certainly not out to fit in, as you put it. I am about as opposite as you can get to the subset of society in which I live. I do not apologize for or downplay my political views, etc., and it has cost me in some cases. This is not about selling out, unless you consider having some modicum of privacy and safety to be selling out. Were the Jews who worked with the Nazis in the concentration camps to preserve their own lives sell-outs? I think there's a point where all bets are off and you do what you have to do to survive and maybe have some degree of a quality life. I'm not quite at the latter yet but I'm getting there. I have a girl in my life who is very important to me, whom I love dearly and am allowed to spend time with, despite my sexual orientation. Given the situation we find ourselves in these days, I'd say that is about as good as can be expected. Anything further would probably make my situation worse, not better. If people find that selfish, so be it. Ultimately my main concern is the girl, because I am a girl lover, not a girl-love lover.

I do not, and never have, considered you a sell-out for taking certain measures to insure your safety, or for others in the community who take similar measures. But taking certain political stances to try and assuage any remnant of self-guilt your psyche may harbor or to try to appease the general public is not the same thing as working with society to make changes. I have made many compromises for society (as have most other pro-choicers), including my resolve not to break any of those laws, but I am not going to change my pro-choice views for this society, because that would indeed be crossing the line from compromise to compromised. I think agreeing to obey all the laws and to work within the system to achieve my goals more than qualifies as working with society rather than against them to achieve these goals.