Videos: Gay people who hate gay people

Gay people who hate gay people

1 February 2010

ZJ: There is something very disturbing that I've been hearing from some gay people. Not most of them, thankfully, but still far too many. Basically, they really don't like other gay people who are visibly gay, effeminate, flamboyant, that sort of thing. They think we give people a bad impression of what gay people are like, and that we are somehow hindering the acceptance of gay people because of who we are. Some of them even go so far as to say that we are the reason people oppose gay equality and vote against gay rights.

You know, that is one of the most disgusting things I have ever heard, especially coming from gay people. Since when has that ever, ever been an acceptable reason to deny someone their rights? Think about what this is really saying: If you don't look like everyone else, if you don't talk like everyone else, if you don't dress like everyone else, if you don't act like everyone else, then you don't deserve the same rights as everyone else.

That is exactly the kind of cowardly, petulant, authoritarian bullshit attitude that you should be fighting against, not endorsing! But instead, you approve of this. And in doing so, you are in agreement with homophobes. Ask yourself, how is that any different from saying that if you aren't attracted to what everyone else finds attractive, or if you don't have sex the same way that everyone else does, then you can't have the same rights as everyone else? There is no difference.

What you are doing here is adopting the same mentality as the people who hate you. You are validating their belief that if you are different, you don't deserve equal rights. And you have the nerve to blame us for inequality? Tell me, do you think you're better than us? Do you think you're more deserving of your rights than we are, just because of how you present yourself? Because you're not. You are not special, you are not superior, and you are not accomplishing anything by pretending that inequality is justifiable.

In reality, you are the ones who are responsible for the very same problems you're trying to pin on us. When you blame the victims of bias instead of holding people accountable for their own discriminatory attitudes, you are cultivating and propagating the social mores that make prejudice acceptable. That is not how you promote the acceptance of gay people in society. We aren't the ones to blame here—you are.

And I just want to make one thing clear: You do not have to be like us, you really don't. But stop trying to force us to be like you. If you expect us to destroy who we are just to cater to the people whose tolerance vanishes the moment they encounter someone who's noticeably gay, you are not supporting gay acceptance. And if you won't stand up for the rights of people who are different from you, it is you who is part of the problem.

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