Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered/Questioning Cultural Futurism

          Only a few short days ago a friend of mine from Portland Oregon were discussing the previous blog I wrote here regarding the decaying nature of the gay bar as an important mainstay for the LGBTQ community. He made a suggestion that pointed I was not alone in my views on the subject. He came up with what may in fact still be a fairly radical idea-a  totally chemical free LGBTQ community. His suggestion was broad and daring in scope. A soda fountain-my suggestion of also serving Vitamin water. A dance floor that played a huge variety of music from rock,jazz,funk and a more diverse variety of EDM type music-with the possibility of live bands. Also an adjunct gymnasium and book store with a bakery that would serve tea rather than coffee. I find myself asking does such a place exist? And if it doesn't,than why not.
              
         Perhaps if something even remotely like this does exist,it might be in major cities where the gay bar is becoming passe. On the other hand, the pretense of such a chemical free gay/lesbian center might run into difficulties in more rural areas based on a conversation I had with another acquaintance recently. After asking this person if they were attending their local Pride festival this year, he said that he wasn't because he doesn't feel comfortable with his perceived segregation of Pride parades-and feels similarly about black history month festivities. Its an interesting game people play with themselves isn't it? The need for privacy mingled with a hunger for community and brotherhood. So many people these more rural areas seem to want it both. And that probably goes right along with how they would perceive such a facility coming into their community. Of course there are other matters on a more personal level.
                 
             One of the appeals of a small town gay bar probably has a lot to do with a long standing love of inexpensive liqueur. Undoubtedly alcohol is one of the worlds most popular drugs,so much so that many don't consider it to be a drug at all. Since the LGBTQ community have long been oppressed from even discussing their lack of civil rights, inebriation has allowed for many of them to speak openly of their feelings and concerns. This of course poses problems when either such expression leads to physical conflicts or the further abuse of very dangerous illegal drugs.  I am frankly surprised that the government didn't put similar restrictions in the past on gay people drinking alcohol as they did on African American's taking cocaine in the early 20th century because the cultural perception is similar in both cases: that there is a "class" of people in society who can control themselves and a "class" who cannot.
                    
           Another topic I discussed in a blog was technological futurism, of the type heavily propagandized by Cold War era America during  the JFK era "new frontier" of the early 1960's. In terms of human beings and their treatment of each other, we all live in a world where a degree of sociological futurism might be the order of the day. That would probably embody itself in a form of secular humanism-a genuine from free of the brutality and despotic behavior of the socialist/communist political systems of yore who used the idea of humanism as pure and dishonest rhetoric. By taking their egos out of a pattern of self pitying,self destructive and irresponsible behavior and into positive and genuinely freeing forms of social interaction such as healthy exercise and literacy as indicated in my friends idea which inspired this, than the LGBTQ community would be leading the way in general human futurism and,rather than be seen (and see themselves) as a pariah on society contribute perhaps the most positively to its continual development.