EVOLUTION AND THE RAINBOW TRIBE No matter how you feel about evolution, the sciences of biology and history clearly demonstrate that one feature, above all others, favors survival: adaptability.  The creatures that prevail must possess this characteristic, period.  This fact is one of those that must confound the flat-earthers who still decry the theory of evolution, for it is confirmed throughout all history—even biblical history.  And what is adaptability, after all, but the evolution of your self to cope with the circumstances in which you find yourself?  And so what is evolution, then, but simply a successful coping mechanism defined as adaptability?    LGBT people have survived and thrived in the world because of this trait.    Historically, we’ve adapted largely by becoming invisible, camouflaged in a collage of people unlike us because we mostly looked, dressed, walked and talked like them (well, maybe a little off, but I said “mostly”).   Historically, some of us have not survived, and that has often been because individually we were unable to adapt sufficiently to camouflage ourselves, thus drawing the attention of predators.  More recently, in this country at least, LGBTs have adapted to the freedoms of democracy by shedding our camouflage, by turning away from the constructs of the straight community that do not address our needs and helping those that do, by coming out and shaping our world instead of being shaped by it.    This is one of the reasons you shouldn’t let the Right-wingnuts get you down.  The LGBTs will survive; we are, historically speaking, expert at adaptation.  Fundamentalists, on the other hand, are bound and doomed by their own doctrine to be completely un-adaptable.  It’s their creed, and their dogma in fact depends upon it.  And despite all the noise they make, they’ve become the drunken aunt at the wedding, so rabid and out of touch that even the other members of the Christian flock are edging away from them.  Like the extinct 19th-century Shakers, their fundamental lack of adaptability limits their options and decreases their odds of survival/success.      The reality of our human condition in America is that most straight people have proven to be pretty adaptable, too, and the circumstances in which we LGBTs find ourselves have changed much in a few short decades.  Except for the Right-wingnuts, most Americans you ask don’t give a damn who loves whom, as long as it’s between consenting adults.  And the evolving attitudes of “most people” have made evolution possible in the way we live: domestic partner benefits, antidiscrimination clauses in workplace and public policies, the freedom to walk hand-in-hand with our partners in public places.   And a thousand tinier, equally important evolutions: that when we do walk hand-in-hand down the street, it often doesn’t merit a second glance.  That when a gay man tells a jeweler to inscribe the wedding band with “Tim—with all my heart—love, Danny”, the jeweler simply nods and smiles and bends to his work.  That when a co-worker asks a lesbian, “So what did you do this weekend?” she might answer, “It was my girlfriend’s birthday, so I surprised her with a trip to Key West”, and the co- worker might respond, “Nice.  Paul and I went there last fall.  It was beautiful.  Do you have the Nelson file on your desk?  I’ve gotta get that estimate done.”    Notice that the two evolutions—ours and theirs—happen together.  Our worlds are inextricably intertwined, despite our differences.  Our “coming out” of the camouflage allows straight people to see us for the first time, and once the shock wears off, most are smart enough to figure out that their way of life is not endangered by our existence, and they adapt.  Coming out also allows—or forces, depending on your point of view-- LGBTs to deal with the world to some degree on our own terms for the first time, an adaptation we must learn to make. Not that we’re living in the rainbow wonderland, by any means.  It’s still easy to feel the heat of the hatred from those rankled by our existence, but these small evolutions are evidence that adaptability is not only possible, but probable, and in fact necessary to survival.  We need and contribute to the communities in which we live.  Tim needs the jeweler, and the jeweler needs his business; the lesbian and her co-worker both need a comfortable environment in which to get the job done.  We all need a community to call home.  And we’re here.  We’re here, we’re queer, and what do you know—we’re all getting used to it.   ###