it’s so weird to see people online say that they think all gay people are prone to “morally judgmental black and white thinking” when that’s just… not the lived experience of any gay people I know. most of us if not all of us are constantly interacting with people who hold a low level hatred for us and we don’t have any kind of choice in that. most of the time it’s “my coworker told me she thinks all lesbians are ugly and gross but most of the time she’s really funny so I forgot about it” or “my relative told me he thinks all gay people should be sterilized and put through conversion therapy, but he’s usually pretty nice to talk to at family functions”. like as gay people we’re constantly compromising on our safety/comfort/mental health for the sake of convenience and familiarity so maybe if you think we all judge celebrities or tumblr users too harshly based on a few microaggressions maybe consider the fact that in real life we hardly ever get to control the kind of environment we live in
It’s also worth stating that a big reason why gay people regularly have to deal with people in their life who express homophobic viewpoints is because celebrities and public figures are also expressing those viewpoints which immediately validates and normalises those same opinions in general members of the public. If I call out a coworker for harbouring homophobic attitudes, the best I can hope for is that colleague facing some kind of disciplinary action for their discrimination, along with probably ruining whatever relationship I had with them and potentially other coworkers as well. If I call out a homophobic uncle, all I hope to achieve is for family gatherings to suddenly get much more uncomfortable than they already were. But if I call out a famous comedian for “joking” in their stand up about murdering a son for being gay, or a politician for consistently voting against protections for LGBTQ+ people, and I know enough other people out there can hear my argument and voice their own in support, then the best I can hope to achieve is that people in wider society see that homophobia is not a valid or defensible position and begins to reevaluate their own viewpoints as a result of that, and if growing up a queer woman has taught me only one thing it’s that I need to choose to pick my battles.
That. Plus, most ‘harsh judgements’ out there are targetted at celebrities and media that made a public statement of how LGBT friendly they were going to be, got positive media coverage and high viewer ratings out of that, and then failed to deliver. We can be harsh when someone profits off our suffering and still treats us like crap.
QueerAnarchism 