The Season for Dreaming

where allies belong (or alternatively, “gay” is not a insult)

icamedownlikewater:

Okay. So that one yes-butno secret or post or whatever really rubbed me the wrong way, and here’s why.

Straight people are not the center of the queer rights movement. White people are not the center of the civil rights movement. Men are not the center of the women’s rights movement. Get it? 

Privileged people do not get to go into a space for oppressed people and decide what they are offended by in that movement. A straight cis person being bothered by being called gay or lesbian or bi or trans* needs to reexamine their privilege and then promptly shut up about their offended-ness. Because it doesn’t belong there.

Look, I like straight people being involved in the queer rights movement, I do. I’m glad they’re there to support me. But if they’re going to be vomiting their privilege all over the place, it’s going to bother the hell out of me and they can gtfo, because they’re obviously not 100% behind me and the cause that’s dear to me—dear to my life. 

Because really, what oppressed people are fighting for is their right to exist. I’m glad there are people out there that want to be allies to this movement, but if they don’t constantly check their privilege and apologize when they’ve messed up (and I’m certainly willing to forgive them, don’t get me wrong), then they need to get out.

I sound like goddamn Larry Kramer rn, lol.

What I was saying in my reply to your reply post was that I don’t think people always say the “but I’m not gay” with the thought process of not wanting to lose their straight privilege in the course of offering their support. I think in many cases they’re saying, “I support gay rights and I want straight non-supporters to realize that support for queer people continues to extend far beyond the actual number of queer people and so non-supportive behavior will continue to become less tolerated” or “I support gay rights and I want to show that I recognize the fact that it is not my movement” and so forth.

Do they get privilege by making the statement regardless of their intentions in saying it? Yes. But that doesn’t mean they don’t know it or that it doesn’t do more than just give them privilege, as I think the identification of who is a straight ally and their numbers is beneficial. Does the gay rights movement need the support of straight people to validate the movement? Absolutely not. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t like knowing there are straight people supporting gay rights or that having openly straight people involved in the gay rights movement doesn’t help in its own ways.

In high school, I was a part of the school’s GSA and it meant a lot to me, and some of the people who were most outspoken and worked the hardest to make that group work were straight, and I often felt like they made the most impact as individuals when they were saying “I support gay rights and I’m straight” (which they didn’t often and their involvement made them occasional victims of anti-gay bullying regardless of what they said their orientation was) — because they set an example for other straight people in the school and they enforced the idea that the involvement of straight people in GSA was appreciated and therefore encouraged more people to join, and even if the gay rights movement doesn’t need the support of straights to validate their fight, a school GSA appreciates as many bodies as they we can get to have a presence and accomplish tasks.

tl;dr: I don’t think people mentioning their straightness in the context of gay rights discussions are always just trying to ensure they keep their privilege. Some people definitely do, but I don’t think it’s fair to generalize the intentions of 29,700 people on Tumblr in reblogging a post. You have every right to be offended by whatever offends you, but I just feel like you’re jumping to conclusions about a statement that can have a lot of different intentions and come from a lot of different sorts of people beyond the negative characterization you’re describing.

(Source: agirlought)

10 Reasons Gay Marriage Is Un-American

gaythisway:

Ten Reasons Gay Marriage is Un-American

1. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can’t marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears’ 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren’t full yet, and the world needs more children.

7. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.

9. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That’s why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven’t adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

(In case you thought those were meant to be real…you may consider looking up what sarcasm is)

(Source: sarahosk, via foxychocolatelady)

Today is a historic day and I am so happy to have seen it

The US Senate just voted to repeal “Don’t ask, don’t tell.”