Too much sex

Satre is a junior at Notre Dame Academy, a private Catholic high school in Middleburg, Va., and the founder of the Virginia LGBT activist group Equality Fauquier-Culpeper. He writes regular journal entries for The Advocate.

Sex.

Excellent; I now have your attention.

We’re comfortable with that word by now, aren’t we? I am pretty sure society has defied the traditional values of the near embarrassment of a flushed face when that haunting three-letter word is mentioned. We see it everywhere we go. Every day of our lives we are faced with an appeal to our attractions through television programs, movies, fashion, the Internet, advertisements, and even our own gay media outlets. When is the last time you flipped through a copy of your favorite gay and lesbian newsmagazine and didn’t see a half naked—or, for that matter, completely naked—white, skinny, muscled male in as promiscuous and lustful a pose as possible?

I have outgrown the tolerance of seeing these advertisements consistently making headlines and racing to the most important reason for buying a magazine. The gay and lesbian community has fallen victim to the media feeding the flames of stereotypes of promiscuity and the typical shirtless white masculine man that we see in every major gay publication.

Last year I went to the fourth largest pride event in the country and the largest one-day street festival in Washington, D.C.: Capital Pride. I found that my eyes were the eyes of the media. All I could see was nudity, promiscuity, and a plethora of free condoms. Little did I know my ignorance was not bliss; I was blinded by my own attraction. Realistically, only 2% of the people at Capital Pride ripped off their clothes to show their arrogance for being a stereotype. The media and I missed the other 98%, where the celebration of traditional family values was prominent among the various people in the crowd.

This year Capital Pride’s theme—“Many Communities, All Proud”—will truly reflect the pride of family and the explicit examples of human diversity. The media should follow suit.

Are we obliged to cater to the unnecessary and ill-conceived notion that gay people are truly promiscuous? With every “hot guy of the day” and every advertisement with a gorgeous, air-brushed, six-packed, blond guy oozing over another nearly nude male we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Despite the fact that gay people are not alone in using sex appeal, it is a fact that gays are so often targeted for these types of images that is problematic. We are not selling news; we are selling sex.

Let’s embrace this year’s motto of Capital Pride: “Many Communities, All Proud.” Let’s pick up our shields of dignity and guard ourselves from the very types of things that we are scolded for in the antigay press.

Let’s stop showing the world that the gay community is the white air-brushed well-built stud who looks like he has used steroids since he was a teenager. We should publish the news with a human face, not a human body.