By Paule Varnell

Regular readers of this column know that one of my goals in writing is to promote gay community social development. One way to do this is by encouraging the formation of small groups of gays and lesbians centered on common interests.

The goal for individuals would be to learn more about their interests by meeting other people with similar interests. But such groups also would be valuable to the community because they could create new friendships among gays. Some might even be independent of age, race and gender.

All of us have interests and hobbies of various sorts, whether music or theater, a particular historical period (the Civil War) or topic (the Titanic), certain authors or handicrafts (quilt-making, decoupage), but we may pursue them alone only because we do not know anyone else who shares our interests.

My model here is the typical book reading group. But unless the participants already know one another, most reading groups disagree about what they want to read and don’t survive long. The answer seems to be to have more narrowly focused subject areas that people are already interested in.

Maybe science fiction. Or if that still seems too broad, then focused on particular writers—Robert Heinlein or Philip K. Dick. What about other writers like Kurt Vonnegut (do people still read Vonnegut?), or Joseph Conrad, Ayn Rand, Dostoevsky, Jane Austen or C. S. Lewis?

Notice that these are mostly not gay books. Some of us get pretty tired of a constant dose of gay, gay, gay. The point is not to read gay lit, but to use existing common interest to draw small groups of gay people together. Not everything in the gay community has to be directly related to our sexual orientation.

Are there enough people in our community who share some of these interests? I suspect so. Would they be interested in joining some sort of reading or study group? I have no idea. The only way to find out is to try it. Many groups would not be a success, but some probably would.

How would these people find one another? A sign on some prominent bulletin board would be one way. But in the Internet era, I imagine the best way would be to create a website where people could post a topic they are interested in, and other people could indicate their interest in that topic and/or propose their own.

I am not tech-savvy enough to set up a website. Perhaps the local gay community center could be persuaded to set one up. If not, there are probably gay individuals who could do it. Maybe a bar or other gay business could pay the costs in return for an ad.

Where would people meet? For larger groups (8-10), meeting rooms at the community center are affordable, though perhaps not for smaller groups. But many public libraries have free meeting rooms if you register in advance. Small groups could meet over dessert or coffee at a restaurant. Talk with the manager in advance. If you have other ideas, please e-mail me.

Turning to other subject areas: People might be interested in Renaissance art or modern surrealism. Taschen publishes excellent monographs—with lots of color pictures—on individual artists for less than $10 each. Since an Edward Hopper exhibition is coming up at the Art Institute he might be a good study topic. Or a group could decide to go to one new gallery opening a month.

There are lots of composers from Bach to Tchaikovsky to Barber, Copland, Sondheim or Erich Korngold who could be a topic of interest. I’m not sure how such a group could play music, if at all, but how many fans of Barber know his Second Symphony or Cello Concerto or fans of Korngold’s film music know his great late Symphony?

What about a Koran reading group? The Koran is something we all ought to know about these days. Or, if Mitt Romney becomes the Republican presidential candidate, a Book of Mormon reading group might be a wise idea. Or even a Bible study group. I’ve always thought that an atheist Bible study group would be a fine idea. Too much Bible study is infected with the pious assumption that the Bible is “true,” whereas modern anthropology, historiography, and textual analysis show that little of it is.

Further afield, some people might be interested in discussing some of Plato’s shorter dialogues or David Hume’s popular essays, or some of Bertrand Russell’s essays. What about a group devoted to a careful reading of John Stuart Mill’s “On Liberty?”

Well, you get the idea. So what are you interested in?

Some of Paul Varnell’s previous columns are posted at the Independent Gay Forum (www.indegayforum.org). His e-mail address is pvarnell@aol.com.