I have been thinking recently about something I mentioned in Sunday group about how the "queer" community have been surfing on the back of the gay and lesbian community grassroots work done over the past 50 years. It also made me question the concept of being "in the closet" and "outing" others which, in a way, is in the same family as "doxxing" and "canceling"

Became aware of this from reading chef Jonathan Tower's memoir several years back

The necessity behind all three concepts is the need to be legitimate and the obligation of others to legitimatize.

Tower’s seemed to be a man who valued privacy over performative identity. He did not “flaunt his gayness” (which for me is refreshing) nor align himself with public activism during the AIDS crisis. He became a target within his own community. He was vilified for what was perceived as apathy or betrayal, yet he quietly supported others and contributed behind the scenes.

Hard-won agency and the ability to define one’s identity and boundaries can be sacrificed when a community begins to demand visible allegiance as proof of legitimacy.

The right to be oneself becomes replaced by the obligation to perform oneself for social validation.

The need to “be legitimate” and to have others “legitimatize” one is an act moral surveillance. Tower’s refusal to submit to that demand was a form of resistance — an assertion of interior freedom against external expectation.

This I am sure many of us agree with

This makes me wonder if the extreme radicalization of gays and lesbians began taking deeper root with the onset of the AIDS crisis and the commodification of gay causes.

https://medium.com/counterarts/pictures-from-the-real-world-458d70764c98