Oh lordy, not this again.
An opinion piece in Pink News saying “don’t be so damn flamboyant if you want equal rights.” There was a discussion on Alex’s Facebook page around the same oh so helpful suggestion.
Topher Gen in Pink News:
You’re not being bold, you’re not making a stance and you’re certainly not making a statement – at least not one that’s helping us gain the respect and equality we deserve.
Perhaps you think I’m being too serious, that Pride is just ‘fun’. Well, you know what? Equality is reached through hard work and dedication, not staggering around the streets in a drunken haze whilst dressed in drag. And Pride does a lot more damage to the LGBT community than people care to realise.
When children are mocked and bullied at school for their sexuality, what hateful remarks are they subjected to? When I was at school, it was remarks like “bums against the wall, boys” or moronic digs and questions from my adolescent piers about “If I liked to wear dresses or make-up” or they’d flick the wrist at me; I even got pushed around. What’s my point? These remarks, these calls that teenage homosexuals are bombarded and plagued with, are heavily incorporated into every Pride march and then plastered all over websites, magazines and the TV for the world to see. It’s a parade full of six-foot tall queens, cross-dressing middle-aged men – and guess what, I’m not stereotyping here. That’s what a lot of the members of the procession dress like. It’s little more than a counterproductive, drag-queen pageant these days than it is a political statement. Yet, people still say it’s harmless fun. Around 40 percent of homosexual teenagers suffer from depression and 30 percent of all teen suicides are due to issues related to their sexuality, most notably being subjected to bullying because of it – tell me now Pride’s just harmless fun?
Hi. Let me explain something. Equal rights are not supposed to be conditional on being sufficiently sedate and conservative and conformist. The right not to be bullied shouldn’t be linked to a supernatural ability to avoid ever being annoying or even noticeable. Equality is not the same thing as sameness, in fact it’s pretty much the opposite of it – equality is not just for the “norm” of being like some Ideal Average, it’s for being like whatever.
The same applies to women. I keep seeing angry “arguments” that feminists need to stop talking about women all the time and just be normal and human with human rights like everyone else. No, we can’t do that and we shouldn’t be expected to. It’s no use saying “I don’t see color” and it’s no use saying “I’m not a feminist, I’m a humanist” – that fight isn’t won yet, and I see little reason to think it ever will be, so no, we can’t and won’t just fade politely into the background. Stop telling us to.