Dirty laundry

Chlamydia, scabies, dyslexia, cholera -- you name it, it's growing in my hamper.\nAs a result of laundry procrastination, my closet has become infested with mounds of dirty, diseased clothes. For two months, the garments have accumulated faster than Bette Midler's back hair.\nConsequently, the clothes are beginning to reek. I'm talking evil -- pure evil -- reek, like sniffing Hitler's armpits. It's a disturbingly foul olfactory experience, somewhat reminiscent of burned toenails and disemboweled sea bass. Thus, I've learned to keep the closet door closed, to avoid confronting my hygienic negligence.\nAnd I'm not alone.\nFrom personal hygiene to social hygiene, from closet space to cyberspace, the same habit of producing and accumulating filth is replicated on the homosexual headquarters, Gay.com. On the site, the stereotypical "dirty laundry" of the gay community -- nymphomania, drug use and general immorality -- is not only exposed, but promoted.\nAs the succinctly inclusive title suggests, Gay.com serves as an all-encompassing guide to gay life, featuring member profiles, news articles, chat rooms and local event listings. Although each of these features could be -- and should be -- designed to promote positive lifestyles and cultural betterment, they are instead designed to facilitate the same "filthy" habits we try to argue don't exist within our community.\nThe bulk of member profiles, for instance, look like advertisements for escort services. Each profile provides a gallery of "naughty" pictures, wherein shirtless twinks photograph themselves posing in front of a bathroom mirror -- one which clearly has not been Windexed. \nYou can see their nipples, you can see their toothpaste, but mainly, you can see their desperation. \nRather than taking an eHarmony approach to the Web site, establishing a positive outlet for meeting possible long-term mates, the profiles section is structured around penile measurements and adult photographs. The site merely functions as a cyber-pimp, facilitating interaction between Netscape Navigat-whores, people in desperate need of both washing and Febreezing their morality. \nWhat bothers me the most about this site is the fact that pornographic material is not only prolifically introduced, but commercially endorsed. With every paid subscription to the Web site -- a Web site that is supposed to represent the entire gay community -- members are given a free subscription to another triple-X Web site. \nNow, am I against pornography? No. I eat porn for brunch, as do 98 percent of all men, gay and straight. But I don't believe that culture should be defined by something as parochial as sexual proclivity.\nJust as clothing is used to represent and express an individual's taste, Web sites such as Gay.com should be used to express our communities' taste -- our values, our pride and our self-awareness.\nIt's easy to blame heterosexuals for all our problems, using them as a collective scapegoat for our moral ambivalence. But this is our problem, our ignorance and, above all, our dirty laundry.\nAll we need is a little queer Cheer.