Nigel Evans, MP, has been arrested for the alleged rape
of 2 men.
And, yes, he’s openly gay.
And lo, the hot mess begins. And let there be a lot of “can
you not…” right now.
Can we not have the simplistic assumptions we so often
see that completely ignore the history of gay men being accused of sexual
assault
At the same time, can we not have people who are usually
so very sure that blaming the victim and assuming sexual assault victims are
lying is deeply wrong suddenly deciding to throw that out the window when gay
men may be the victims.
Can we not have any attempts to try and make sweeping
statements about all of us on the basis of this. Another vomit-worthy repeat of
the “gay men
have a culture and tradition of preying on young men and boys” is really
not needed. Especially if you’re not actually a gay or bisexual man in which
case you don’t know nearly as much about our “culture” as you think you do and
can take your nose out before deciding to paint us as sex offenders. Or making
being a sex predator a “tradition” for gay men, because that was some evil
messed up shit.
Can we not have people handwringing about how this is
hurting all gay men. Because it isn’t – the thing hurting gay and bi men is the
collective responsibility straight people – and others sometimes as was evident
during the Clash scandal – like to dump on all of us. We are not responsible
and only people who do not see us as fully people, as individuals or people who
are looking for an excuse to attack us will attack all of us based on one man’s
actions. That is what will hurt us. By saying this crime will hurt all of us is
accepting that we hold collective responsibility rather than attacking the
sweeping bigotries perpetuated against us.
Can we not have a full biography of how gay he is every time this is reported? Is it relevant when he came out? Is there a reason to write articles that at least half about his sexuality? We don't do this with straight people.
Can we not have a full biography of how gay he is every time this is reported? Is it relevant when he came out? Is there a reason to write articles that at least half about his sexuality? We don't do this with straight people.
I feel a headache coming on already.
And while we're at it - not he isn't a GBLT activist. The man was a closeted homophobe with a dire voting record against our rights who came out seconds before he was outed and then tried to spin it the other way.
