What?
WHAT?
WHAT?!
When, thankfully, the anchor challenges his ridiculous
claim (I believe the anchor is both gay and not impressed) he backtracks and
claims he doesn’t know what it’s like to be gay – but how the “label” of gay impacted
him. Seriously. Do I even have to say how clueless this is? How a straight
person deciding to use the label gay is appropriative and disgusting – and how
there is no way he gets even a SHRED of our experience just because he hangs
around in our spaces.
What the hell was the point of this?
Do you want to know what it is like to be gay? Do you
know what would be another good way to learn empathy? Let me show you a really
handy tool:
It’s called Google.
Because there are innumerable GBLT blogs, news sites,
personal sites, youtube videos and countless other sources for first hand GBLT
experiences. You could just listen to us and WE can tell you what it’s like to
be us. Not pretend to be us and perform your daft social experiment as an
undercover freaking anthropologist. Why would ANYONE think we need a straight
guy to not only tell our stories but to decide what our stories are based on
where he want clubbing?! Why do we need a book on who being “labelled” gay
affects the life of the poor straight person?
Why do you need to pretend to be us to learn empathy for
us? Especially since it’s conceded (apparently) that he doesn’t understand what
it is to be gay with his fake, appropriative charade? Your friend has been
ostracised by her friends and family – and actual GBLT person – wasn’t that
enough? You couldn’t learn empathy from that? You couldn’t learn empathy from
listening to us? From learning our stories? From seeing what happens to us?
Because you’ll get FAR more insight into the plight of GBLT people by actually
seeing it rather than playing silly games in your free time and fake “coming
out”.
You know what else? I don’t want straight guys pretending
to be gay lurking around our spaces so they can “immerse themselves in the gay
experience”. I certainly don’t want self-confessed homophobes doing so. Those
are OUR spaces, OUR safe spaces, damn it. You’ve got 99% of the freaking
planet, leave us these slivers.
That’s also our social space. That space you’re coming
into and WATCHING us. That’s our lives you’re playing your little experiment
on.
