But I'm not mainstream.

Just as hipsters vehemently deny being hipsters, but still end up in the skinny-jeans-wearing herd, many gay people love to express their disdain for mainstream gay male culture — and heaven knows it has its faults — while partaking of it anyway. In fact, claiming to have distanced oneself from mainstream gay male culture is increasingly part of mainstream gay culture. Moreover, I'm sure we all know people who claim not to be gay clichés while actually being some of the biggest gay clichés around. Yet the aspect of mainstream queer culture that most badly needs to be challenged — political correctness, with its anti-rationalism, groupthink, and shocking resemblance to the religious right — gets a free pass.