Right. I'm gonna go off in a moment. It's about the LGBTQ+ Community, Straight Allies, and Pride. I felt the need to do this after a recent interaction where I realised this wasn't obvious. You have been warned.
Feel free, in fact, PLEASE, repost this.
Cis/Het allies belong at Pride. It's a fact, deal with it. Every voice shouting for us is one more person determined to help. If you disagree with me go check our own history. Go watch the damn film 'Pride' where the community supported the welsh mining community and then a veritable battalion of welsh miners showed up for Pride in 1985. The miners went on to force a vote through with Labour Party to make them commit to supporting the rights of our Community. A world standing together and screaming for equal rights is always going to be more effective than one damn minority group no matter how difficult we make it to ignore us.
That being said if an ally joins us they need to understand something.
You are not an 'ally' to the LGBTQ+ community for just agreeing that we are in fact people. That's called being a decent human being. You are an ally if you stand with us in protest against not just the inequalities that still exist, but against the attacks upon us from outside forces.
If you treat Pride as a celebration of coming together, as a party after the battle? Then piss off. Pride isn't the after-party, it's a fight. It's people banding together to protest the crap going on, and let the closeted members of the community know that we are HERE for them.
Pride isn't for our nice sides. Pride is a damn battleground fought with placards and angry voices. You want to expand your horizons, increase your horizons, educate yourself? Then join a few Facebook groups, go talk to an LGBTQ+ society at a university, show up to events to raise awareness. Our community will always make time to talk to you and point you in the direction of petitions you could sign or good reading material.
But Pride isn't for that. Pride is for demanding attention. For forcing people to shine a damn light on things going wrong. On another day you might find 'George: a pleasant bisexual who will explain whatever he can if you ask', at Pride you'll find 'George: A furious 6'4" bastard who is pissed equality isn't a damn fact of life already'. Pride is for people who have seen injustice in our so called 'modern' world and are pissed about it.
If you go to Pride to celebrate, as well intentioned that may be, you detract from the struggle. You are joining in the smokescreen masking what it is really about. The original Pride was a riot, and maybe people don't always throw petrol bombs and fireworks at us still - though in some places they do - but it is still a fight. A protest.
If you're one of the people who don't realise there are still battles to be fought, well. I may be glad that there are people whose lives aren't torn apart via attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, but right now, let me educate you a little.
Gay conversion therapy still isn't illegal in the UK. Now, in case you are not familiar with standard gay conversion techniques, they use a shit tonne of negative reinforcement. Typically using electrodes. This type of treatment is based on the idea that being gay, or any other LGBTQ+ denomination is fundamentally wrong. That it is a mental illness. This is still legal. It is still something that actually happens.
I signed a petition about getting gay conversion therapy made illegal recently. The government sent back an email about how they need time to consider the implications of what would happen if they shut these businesses down. They were talking about job security for people who make a living off of torturing people until they were 'straightened out'. There are people out there that hate us for living. That would kill us simply for who we are. Then there are those that seek to correct us. Like we're some sort of disease riddling the human race.
Alan Turing, the man behind the cracking of the Enigma Code during world war two, an achievement that shortened the life span of the war considerably. His efforts likely saved millions of lives. That being said, when he confessed to being gay and having a boyfriend, he was prosecuted for being a homosexual on the charge of indecency. Because obviously being gay is something to be ashamed of right?
They put him on a regime of body chemistry altering drugs to try and 'fix' him. Only for it to send him spiralling into a depression that resulted in him killing himself. It took over fifty years for a formal apology to be made on behalf of the government for how they treated a legitimate hero. This was an injudtice that was only corrected because of how high profile Aln Turing was. There are countless others who will never 'earn' their apology.
However, did you know that when a film was made about him, instead of having it portray him being in a loving relationship that got exposed, he was just caught with a male prostitute. Because clearly even in a film meant to give him the glory he deserved they can't show a positive homosexual relationship. This is yet another demonstration of dehumanising members of the LGBTQ+ community, making us into something to be ashamed of. Something dirty to be hidden away.
These examples of conversion therapy, and of Alan Turing, are just two of examples among many. If you want to be a true ally to the community. Then do some research, pick your issue, get your rainbow warpaint on and start shouting the damn battlecry. Or alternatively just get online and start signing petitions because every damn signature counts. I couldn't sit here and talk you through all the issues going on if I dedicated all my damn time to it.
So let me restate: Allies are welcome at Pride. One more pissed off voice is damn important. That being said, if you're not there to protest and draw attention to an issue of equality, you are not an ally. You are a distraction. You are welcome to join us in screaming and shouting for equality, I fact I beg you to do so. However don't come to a protest expecting us to behave like it's a damn party.
