The Lifestyle

I am an American. And white. And male.

Not that I’m bragging. I didn’t achieve these by labor, genius or skill. I was born that way.

Really I don’t imagine those qualities as defining me. There are a bunch of white American men and they don’t seem to be at all like me.

In Personal Ad Land a whole mess of folks talk about how long they’ve been in “The Lifestyle.” Is that like being a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, the Klan or the ACLU?

The lifestyle, not a lifestyle. That the seems to have an invisible ‘one true’ trailing invisibly after it.

I remember back when I was a young gay man discovering there were gay Republicans. Damn, talk about people with cooties. Gay Republicans? I’d yet to learn how people identify with their economic status. Being treated like worthless scum is OK if it keeps your taxes down. And these guys aren’t even masochists. So much for group identification.

This lifestyle - is it something you are born in?

Or are you selected for it like some secret society? Is it open to anybody who can pay the membership fee?

Do you get secret membership cards and Lifestyle Decoder Rings?

Can you be kicked out and never be allowed to do lifestyle things again?

Not having heard from the membership committee I guess I’m not part of the lifestyle™.

Nobody ever lets me play with the cool guys …