I hate the very idea that someone could consider me “old school” but I guess in many ways I am. I like my lesbians to be, well, lesbians.
That’s the end all and be all of the Gay Girl In Damascus and LezGetReal.com Blogger scandals for me. It’s as simple as that. I wasn’t a reader of LGR so I don’t feel personally betrayed. I’d never even heard of it until a few weeks ago when I bought lez.org and started to research the idea of launching it as an aggregation site for queer news and opinion.
I like to know who I’m dealing with and I like to know a little about them so I can understand where they are coming from. To that end I have walked away from more than a few people who raised my BS flag. When you deal with people in the online world long enough you develop a pretty good BS meter and while it certainly seems inconceivable to me that multiple people who worked with Paula Brooks/Bill Graber day in and day out for years could have been fooled I’m willing to admit that people aren’t always as smart as I give them credit for. This is all the more true when it comes to people who want to share their voice in some sort of authoritative manner. Much like a struggling actress in Hollywood is willing to believe that creepy dude at the party has the influence to get them a staring role – an unknown or underknown blogger is willing to believe they are dealing with someone who shares a common history and a common goal.
I find the irony of the one revelation leading directly to the other particularly fitting. I try my level best to lead an authentic life online. It’s not a game to me. It is my life – It’s where I earn my living and it’s where many of my closest friendships have originated. It’s also brought some not entirely great things into my life, but I take the good with the bad and move on.
If you’re writing behind a pseudonym, I urge you to reconsider. If what you write isn’t something you’d want associated with your real name, I urge you to consider whether you should be writing about it in a public space. Mostly, I just urge you to be authentic.
