HETEROSEXUAL CIS-PEOPLE LOOK HERE
Snaps my fingers at you as you scroll past this post
Look at me. Listen.
I'm not the best at serious posts, but that article up there reminded me of how important it is that people like you stand up for us. So hold on while I try to get this out of my mushy end-of-work-day brain.
We could fight this fight ourselves for decades trying to reach the equal laws, gender affirming trans healthcare that doesn't have a 2-5+ soul-eating years of waiting time, medical care with equal knowledge of lgbtqia+ bodies, and, what is often forgotten, inclusion in the little everyday areas of life like our way of speaking or things being set up or designed with the existence of queer people in mind.
But you joining in could get us there so much faster.
The power you have as a hetero cis person is that you set the standard for what is seen as the average way of treating us among other hetero cis people. You have been given the power of deciding what's "normal" and I'm begging you to use it.
Richard Green is a great example of to what extent your actions can help our situation, and smaller ways of support still add up to a great impact on society, and could make the days of the queer people you interact with.
Educate yourself before you speak up, but don't be silent.
I'm reblogging this also to argue that straight people, yes even cis straight people who've never met anyone queer in their entire lives, belong at pride!
When your humanity is stripped away, your rights ignored and the world against you, it's allies who will pick you up and stand beside you.
And there will be allies who will face the same discrimination for the same reasons that you do, even if it's not true to their person, simply because they still see you and they speak out for you.
There are laws in other countries to have you imprisoned or killed if you 'hide' a gay person's sexuality from the government. There are circles even in your own country where speaking out for queer rights will socially isolate you.
Don't pretend like this kind of discrimination doesn't exist.
Queerphobia affects everyone! It's a structural problem. It enforces stereotypes, it pressures people into gender norms and shares the same bs arguments that exist in racism (it's recycled bs in all categories, really). In my childhood, boys were bullied for liking pink. The argument was homophobic, obviously.
Homophobia affects straight people too. Transphobia affects cis people too. Mysoginy affects men too. And so on and so forth.
Bullying is bullying, whether what you're bullied for is true or not. And everyone who experiences it should be taken seriously. And everyone who will stand by your side to fight for the same thing, should be welcome.
(Except, of course, if there is some weird kind of concert thing going on and people at pride complain about all the queer people. But that's a different story.)
