(no subject)

[rm]

While there are a hundred reasons why straight people openly specifying that they are straight and also support the rights of GBLTQ people to marry their partners is a useful thing, think of the power of this:

Just saying that you support it. Without mentioning your own damn orientation.

Because I know it's not always or even often distancing when someone says, "I'm straight but I support gay rights," but trust me, trust me, trust me, trust me, when I tell you that's what it can feel like from over here.

Just try saying it without qualification. Picture _that_ as an LJ meme. You know?

Comments

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

Thank you. The idea that queer voices carry less weight than straight voices when discussing their own rights as human beings is like a knife in the chest.

[rm.livejournal.com]

You put it far more succinctly and brutally than it had occurred to me to do. Yes, this.

I am not a child, and I am not an animal. But that's what so much of the discourse, even the supportive discourse does to us.

[winterknight.livejournal.com]

Getting further into it, I really, really hate the "I'm straight and my marriage isn't threatened..." meme. It's like in order to make a point, a person has to immediately OTHER queers, and then their voice is valid. I understand, but equally hate the "straight, but not narrow" stickers and badges. Because what would be so bad about just supporting queer rights? You might get mistaken for being queer? Well, guess what? Imagine BEING queer.

I think people who are straight who grab for those forms of solidarity still aren't totally getting it. They want to be open and liberal and maybe they really, deeply, believe in queer rights, and maybe they feel like they're being respectful by not impinging on the queer identity... but the message in the end is still, "I'm Privileged, and I'm using my Privilege to validate this message."

ETA: I understand Olberman's point, and I did not find it insulting. He was trying to set himself up as an example that pulls down the very thing I'm complaining about. You don't have to be queer or to even care about queers to respect the concept of HUMAN rights. You just have to admit that queers are human.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Olbermann also got a pass from me on this one, because for whatever reason he seemed near tears, which certainly removed any possibly distance that was contained in his words.

[rosepurr.livejournal.com]

It's always been this way.

I don't say that to make it seem like "this way" is right because it ISN'T.

I say this to say that I understand, as I watch mostly men make decisions about the legality of my body, as I read about women marching for the right to vote, so that men would change the laws, as I hold my breath and watch the Supreme Court, made up of people not like me, make decisions about me.

As a woman, an atheist, a progressive in a blue state, I understand. You are not a minor and your voice deserves adult, human weight.