@cantfit,
Cowardice is unrealistic, and I have contempt for it.
Realistic is the fact that, from the date that the Mattachine Society was first founded, in 1950, it took more than half a century for the last of the Sodomy laws to get overthrown and several more years for the fight for marriage equality to get won, but also,
a lot happened between one point and the other.
1) In the 1950's, the chief way that organizations like the Mattachine Society benefited gay men was by being humanizing, actually. The truth is that even gay men did not like being reduced to just their sexuality, at least not once they had felt the sense of pride and empowerment that comes from feeling like a whole person. They had other things about them. Meeting occasionally with other gay men helped them remember that, even though they were gay, those other things about them were still more important. They realized that they needed to focus on getting careers and settling down in steady jobs. They had families. Some of them were battling mental illness. They were people first, homosexuals last. Ironically, this had a huge impact, later, on their freedom to be openly homosexual. It was very significant. They were not giving up being gay, but they were giving up the idea that being gay could really stop them from being anything else.
2) In the 1960's, gay men had actually benefited tremendously from their efforts to build themselves better lives. Even though they were not free to be who they were openly, they had improved their quality of life. They had moved up in society. Many of them were become very politically well-connected, and they knew famous people. Many of them were friends with movie stars.
3) In the 1970's, they were getting their first cultural meccas where it was not actually life-endangering or career-ending for them to come out as gay. Most Americans, throughout most of the 1970's, still believed that the majority of gay men were pedophiles, even
more than 30 years after the Mattachine Society was founded and the idea of gay rights activism had first begun.
4) The community then was hit by the AIDS Crisis. This was partly a setback for them, and it was partly also an important wake-up call to them that it couldn't be all about being free and being able to do what they choose. It was a reminder that it had to also be about being responsible and being civic-minded. In the end, what they learned from this crisis and their willingness to learn from this crisis ultimately helped improve their credibility, in the long-run.
There were intervening developments in that half a century.
If you told me we were probably half a century out from overturning all of the anti-zoophilia laws, then I would tell you that you are actually right. It can't just be about that, then. It has to be about everything else.
It has to also be about us developing a strong mentoring culture. Look at the world around you, and by that, I mean look at the zoophile community around you. There are kids running around demanding to owners, "Will you let me suck on your dog's dick?" and it's not that they are horrible people because of this. It's because they are kids that have nobody really there trying to mentor them and give them direction without crushing their hearts and telling them they are just plain bad.
The place where we are at, right at this moment, is dealing with exactly the things you pointed out, I quote you, "Most problems zoos face are from missteps in navigating through the lifestyle."
Here is reality: every time they do, that increases the chance that the law is going to come after you!
But scolding them alone is not going to work. Telling them that they have a right to be better and to be seen as better is going to work. Read the document originally published by the Mattachine Society, "Revolt of the Homosexual."
They are honest about the shortcomings of the gay community. I quote the Mattachine Society, in their own words, "
I do not see, therefore, any capacity to revolt in “gay society.” It is a destructive sub-culture, producing corps of clean-shaven, fresh-scented zombies who eat, sleep, walk, talk, and are dead. It is a sub-culture in which sex is substituted for real personal relations. As a sub-culture it produces nothing of value."
It was not the fact that they were criticizing that made the difference, but it was the reason why they were criticizing that made the difference. They were telling these people that they deserved better and that it was pathetic that they would not wake up and realize they deserved better.
If you want to start with "realistic," then let's start with getting some of these kids to think of themselves as people with jobs that have room in their homes to own dogs. Tell them they deserve to believe that that could be them, not lost individuals that are out there endangering you and embarrassing you. Give them their first scent of an idea that they could actually live decent lives, where they don't have to pursue a hopeless endeavor to cut their sexuality out of themselves in order to be human beings that can be defined by something besides their sexuality.
It may take half a century for us to produce a generation that can succeed at overthrowing the anti-zoophile laws if we ever truly do produce a generation that can succeed at overthrowing the anti-zoophile laws, but I intend to stay around another half a century and then live for a while longer in order to peacefully enjoy it and to laugh.
Zoophile pride must start with young zoophiles believing they have a right to have good careers and to hold down steady jobs and provide safe soundproofed homes in safe neighborhoods in which to keep their animals. They must not only believe that this is a good idea, but they must believe they should be willing to stand up and fight for it passionately and with a sense of revolution, no matter what obstacles or hindrances get thrown in their way. It has to start there.
www.zooville.org
