Among those lamenting that ‘young LGBT/queer kids don’t know their history’ are too many LGBT/queer activists who mistakenly think that this means that our history should totally determine the present.

As in ‘In the 60′s this term meant X so that is the REAL meaning’ and ‘Person A invented this symbol to mean X so that is what it should always mean’.

And like, that’s ridiculous. Our movements change, grow, learn, adapt to new circumstances. Words and symbols don’t mean what they did half a century ago and that’s fine. If the meaning of words and symbols are being adapted to meet our current needs, that’s a good thing.

When we learn from the past it should by reproducing what is worth reproducing and changing what needs changing, What we keep, we should keep because the stuff we learn there is good and relevant to our present, not because we have an obligation to follow the sacred texts of those who came before us.