okay, i was in the car with my sisters (who are both cishet), and one of them asked, āhow lgbt friendly is our town?ā
i responded immediately with, ānot at all,ā at the same time my other sister responded with, āwell, itās not *that* friendly.ā
i was asked by both of them as to why i was insisting that no, our town (which is extremely small and can be summed up by the school, btw) is not lgbt friendly. i told them that so many kids threw around the f and d slurs, as well as calling people gay as an insult, and also, they make those ādid you just assume my gender/i identify as an attack helicopterā jokes. keep in mind, iām genderfluid and a lesbian, so yeah, these things are both *pretty* harmful to me. (granted, iām not out to my family, so them not listening to what i had to say wasnāt (too much of) a problem, but thatās not the point.)
my other sister, who said that our town was *kind of* lgbt friendly, said, āwell, yeah, but youāre going to find that in every school. what i mean is that no one - or at least most people - is going to get turned away for being gay.ā
throwing around homophobic and lesphobic slurs and making homophobic and transphobic jokes is not ālgbt friendly,ā no matter how normal it is. these things harm lgbt kids (i.e., me), and drive anyone who wants to come out further into the closet. iām out as a lesbian to all my friends, but i would never dream of coming out as genderfluid to them, and you know why? itās because they laughed at (not even made - laughed at) those ādid you just assume my gender?ā jokes. iām fucking petrified of being myself around others because of these jokes. (goddamn jokes).
so no, our town is not lgbt friendly. i donāt give a shit that *most* people wonāt get kicked out of their homes for being gay. as long as gay, trans, and nonbinary kids are being ostracized and pushed into the closet, our town is not lgbt friendly.
if you arenāt lgbt, you need to hold yourself to *way* higher standards than you are now. just because you wouldnāt kill your friend for being gay doesnāt mean youāre a good ally. if you throw around slurs (yes, even jokingly), if you call people gay as an insult, or if you make any of the āattack helicopterā jokes, youāre a shitty ally and an even shittier human.
(yes, cishets can reblog this - in fact, itās encouraged.)