(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

Re: Playing the devil's advocate...

[rm.livejournal.com]

At every point in the various struggles for human rights, hasn't someone in the empowered group had to speak for the oppressed?

Yes, but here's the deal, up close and personal:

Do you have any idea how it fucks with my sense of self not just to know, but to be told over and over again that I have to have someone else fight for me? That I'm not ever going to be strong enough or good enough to fight for myself?

Just because it's pragmatic, doesn't mean it's not awful.

And in the matter of gay rights, it creates an added layer of complication especially for gay men, who get a double whammy of society's bullshit about what men should be in there too.

Re: Playing the devil's advocate...

[these-3-remain.livejournal.com]

Do you have any idea how it fucks with my sense of self

I don't. I'm trying to understand, but I obviously just don't get it, because I don't have the same experience as you. I will take your word for it, though, that in trying to be helpful sometimes I (and others, I know, not just me) miss the mark.

Re: Playing the devil's advocate...

[cantkeepsilent.livejournal.com]

Do you have any idea how it fucks with my sense of self not just to know, but to be told over and over again that I have to have someone else fight for me? That I'm not ever going to be strong enough or good enough to fight for myself?

If it makes it less awful, I'm not fighting for you. I am fighting for the moral core of the United States and the continued revelation of the self-evident truths and unalienable rights that Thomas Jefferson laid out in the Declaration of Independence. And I'm fighting so that my three year-old niece will someday carry the fight in directions that challenge me in the same way that I am currently challenging my grandparents.

You are right. You will win this fight. And when you win, it will be your victory, brought about because of your strength. You are the actor, we are just the chorus.