Back into the closet

[binidj]

There's not a great deal can make me ashamed of who I am¹ but every now and then I see something that just makes me want to crawl back into the closet and deny any association with the fucktards with whome I share a sexuality. To clarify, I just saw an article³ entitled "NHS Pulls Funding On Gay Smoking Cessation" ... reading it just confirmed my fears. I mean, what the hell are my special cultural needs that mean that normal smoking cessation services won't work for me? It's (demands for) special treatment like this that I firmly believe fuels prejudice and hostility, and I don't want any part of it. For goodness' sake, there are chronic funding shortages in the NHS and these idiots are bitching about losing support for a smoking cessation course which by its nature excludes most of the population ... it's just sickening.

Then again, maybe I don't understand the special issues involved because I am, in fact, not gay ... perhaps the definitions have become about cultural issues rather than about who you play "hide the salami" with ... and gods protect me from that repulsive edifice known (ironically I have to suppose) as gay "culture."

¹ Ok sometimes my weirdo hobbies² can make me shuffle my feet a bit.
² Tabletop, live and online roleplaying games.
³ There was a link from a survey I filled in ... I don't think I shall be a regular visitor.

Comments

[s0b.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping that playing devil's advocate here isn't going to get me into a heated argument, but I'm going to do it anyway.

If the programme was for Gay drug addicts would you feel any differently? Whilst I would agree with you that there are no special cultural needs to help a gay man, or woman, or white middle class hetro break a habbit, I'd also suggest that if you were a part of "gay culture" that a mutually supportive and accepting environment is going to offer you a better chance of kicking smack than a fundamentalist church.

Because mainstream culture suggests that you should "learn to beat your nicotine cravings" rather than "coming off the narcotic that is killing you" it adds a slightly camp spin to the programme which, if it had succeeded, might have saved lives.

Sometimes having a silly name is not a crime.

[binidj.livejournal.com]

My argument would be then, that if there is the need for the NHS to spend it's funding on queer-centric smoking cessation programmes, then surely there is an equal need for white-middle class smoking cessation programmes, for fundamentalist Christian smoking cessation programmes, for equestrian smoking cessation programmes. The list of cultures in this country is truly vast, and I do not believe that tailoring health services at them is the best use of a limited pool of money. Far better, in my opinion, is to channel all of the money spent on specific (and exclusionary) cultural programmes in to providing better quality generic services. The National Health Service should be for all of us, not those of us with the biggest placards.

[s0b.livejournal.com]

*if* a particular section of society manages to overcome a drug addiction with more success within a programme made up of people from that section then I agree with you and there should be quit-smoking programmes for each group.

[binidj.livejournal.com]

But there simply isn't enough money in the NHS pot to pay for that ... hence my contention that funds would be better spent on improving generic services.

[westernind.livejournal.com]

>white-middle class

Nah - whiteys and the bourgeois are relatively socially privileged classes. Dunno about them horse-lovers though. They have recently had a nekkid Daniel Radcliffe thrust upon them.

[** we will now stop burbling and return you to your scheduled programming **]