Lately, I have been considering many topics. Labeling and nomenclature within our community and its impacts mostly from the ability to self-identify. I was reading your article on 365GAY regarding Drag Queens and like you, I am the “plain” gay. *grin* Whatever that actually means. Then I look at things like LGBT, Queer, Mary, (terms I would prefer not to mention)etc. and can’t help but wonder if as a community, if we should attempt to change our verbiage at least in the Political and Academic realms. Your thoughts? Perhaps, I am a “plain” gay.

Next, I wanted to know your response to Gay and Lesbian Studies (Queer Studies). While in college, I enrolled (intentionally) into Women’s Studies, Gender classes, and several Black Culture and History courses. I did so as a result to help to better understand what was happening withing the gay community, which always resulted in a high level of frustration because while I wanted to be able to put my own life into perspective, I wanted to gain more perspective of our history (indirectly in this case) and perhaps be able to better help guide our future. I am community activist and work hard toward the advancement of several groups, but I have always been starved of knowledge because of the lack of Gay and Lesbian studies (Queer Studies). With this being said, I have been able to educate myself by either stories being passed down, my own ambition to locate information, and/or just sheer luck of happening upon information. What is your stance regarding the impact of the lack of Gay and Lesbian studies (Queer Studies) on the community and our advancements not only in the workplace, but in society as a whole? We have a vast number of talented GLBT contributors in our world’s history and yet most of them go unrecognized for their art, writings, insight, inventions, etc. I have found http://www.glbtq.com to be an excellent source of information, but no clue if this information is peer reviewed.

I look forward to your future articles.