boomerang

 

Here's the thing: I am a very urban/big city kinda boy. Can I survive when I go camping?  I can. I have done it. I went to a place called the Sawmill (or something related to lumberjacks) and I enjoyed it. Do I do it better when I go -as Maddie says- 'glamping'? Yes, I do. But I can rough it up and do the whole being a tasty morsel for mosquitos thing. 

But I'm not much of a camper, or an RV denizen. I do know, though, that many gay men really enjoy it and that there's some places to go RV-ing in Michigan. I've been to Saugatuck several summers and I've done the semi-wild-life thing, even risking staying in a little cabin. It's been fun. I also learned that people live in RV camps year round and I visited more than one Silverstream that really made me question going back to civilization. Gay men can really make ANYTHING look absolutely fabulous. Anything. 

So this weekend, when we were having a conversation about what we would like to do in the summer and going to Michigan came up, the news that a new RV camp was going to be available was kind of welcome. What was not good news is to learn was that they were being absolutely transphobic. Even BEFORE they opened their doors. How's that possible, would the Business major in you ask? Well, the level of entitlement and privilege that white cisgender gay men can accumulate is always motive for fuckery. Don't believe me? Take a look:

BETWEENTHELINES

What kind of fresh hell is this, would you ask? Well, apparently Mr.Bryan Quinn (don't even get me started) decided that because his camp was 'Members Only'. They could go ahead and be as Transphobic as they could. Oh, you think that's the worst part? How about this:

“Let’s be real here,” Quinn added in one comment. “If we let women that act like men in, and they go naked at the pool, that’s when it’s obvious that there’s no penis. Sorry to put it bluntly. But if you don’t like the rules, quietly leave.”

QUEERTY

Mr. Quinn went all in with the transphobia while trying to excuse his abominable opinions. And what amazes me is that this would happen in what's supposed to be a gay-friendly environment. How can a camping ground call itself LGBT-friendly if it's definitely excluding the T from the acronym? It's 2021, people. Not 1961. How can there be gay men that in the XXI century still base all their worth on their penis? As a penis-carrying homosexual, the sight of somebody who identifies as male but does not have nine inches hanging between their legs does not detract from either having a penis or wanting a man with one.

The sight of a vagina will not make me blind. The insinuation of a breast will not break me. Mr. Queen says that this is a clothing-optional place and that everybody needs to have an ID where their sex should be stated to be 'male'. What good can that kind of policing do? He wants the people who go visit his campground to be a 'guy' or a person with a penis. My eyes are rolling so back far in my head that I'm probably gonna pass out. What kind of toxic masculinity would allow for these opinions to be formed?

I can only speak for myself, but I think it's unacceptable to claim to be 'LGBTQ' and radically exclude the L and the T in that acronym because it does not fit their idea of what a man is. Somebody should tell Mr. Quinn that a Trans man is a man and that a Trans woman is a woman. There's also gender non-conforming people with a penis, BTW. The fuckery boggles the mind.

When I was told about the backlash building up on Facehook, I thought it could be that some TERFS had gotten under someone's skin and were causing trouble. It never occurred to me that some fragile gay men would feel so threatened by the sight of someone who would, for a second, hurt their delicate (but very masculine) sensibilities. Aghast, I was. Also, does this mean that the person needs to have an ID that states they're male? Do they need to have been through top surgery? Do they need to be on hormones? What if they have not had bottom surgery? The policing of Trans bodies is horrendous. 

This stinks of exclusionary. My sexuality is not tied to my penis and somebody not having a penis does not affect my gender expression in any way shape or form. Call me radical, but the sight of a vagina or a pair of breasts does not make me want to become heterosexual on the spot. A naked body is a naked body and it does not need to be automatically sexualized to be valid. And I'm mature enough to sit down naked next to someone who does not look exactly like me and not feel threatened. Yes, this will be a clothing-optional place, but I hope that the -few- people who end up going to this camp realize that they are being treated like precious snowflakes that cannot take the reality of the world we are living in right now. 

As for me, fuck Camp Boomerang and fuck Mr. Quinn. And fuck every fragile gay men whose toxic conception of masculinity does not let him see beyond his dick. Ugh. 

XOXO