Dear teenagers on tumblr, and a whole bunch of adults, too:
You can be any identity under the sun, and that does not stop you from being bigoted or hateful towards other people of that identity or any other.
Being gay doesn't magically mean you can't be homomisic or anything else.
Being aspec does not mean you can't be amisic or anything else.
Being trans doesn't mean you can't be transmisic or anything else.
Your identity does not determine how harmful or hateful your actions and words are. There is no identity in the world that gives you a free pass from biotry and cancels out all the harm you do.
"But I can't be an exclusionist, I'm literally aspec!" is a completely meaningless statement. I know not everyone remembers, or was even online during the aspec harassment campaign, but a ton of alloaces and alloaros were onboard with the whole thing and throwing the "non-Queer aces and aros who make us look bad" under the bus.
Their asexuality or aromanticism did not magically make their actions not violently and horrifically amisic.
Being part of an oppressed minority does not make all of your actions harmless and innocent, and it does not mean that anyone who criticizes you for bigotry against other people from that minority group is just "stupid" and needs to "touch grass".
You being [insert identity] does not mean that it's impossible for you to hurt, or be hateful towards other people of that identity.
If someone tells you that something you are saying is harmful and bigoted, and that there are better ways to phrase what you're actually trying to say, you cannot respond with "I'm literally X identity you stupid idiot, do you think I hate myself??" or pretend that the people telling you it's harmful are just "making up problems to get mad about" and "need to touch grass" and "looking for things to be offended by"
You cannot repeat the exact same words any random conservative would be saying and call yourself progressive and say you're acting in good faith and have good intentions.
If you actually want you make yourself and your blog a supportive place for your community, then you need to learn that it is not okay to respond to people telling you something is hurtful by just repeatedly insulting them and saying they're just looking for problems to cause and you've done nothing wrong because "I'm literally X identity I can't spread hate about my own identity".
Because yes you can. And you are.
If multiple people are telling you you're acting like an exclusionist, that is your cue to stop, take time to calm down your immediate negative reaction, and listen properly.
Do not just immediately leap to repeating exact conservative talking points by accusing people of "looking for things to get offended by".
Do not immediately leap to insulting people's intelligence and other ableist things.
If you are actually acting in good faith, and you are actually trying to be a supportive member of your community, then you have a personal responsability to listen to other people in your community when you are told that something you've done or said is hurtful and is perpetuating harmful, exclusionary beliefs.
You are not immune to being a bigot just because you're also a minority.
You have a personal responsibility to listen to people when they tell you you are doing something harmful.
You have a personal responsibility to unlearn bigoted thought patterns and behaviors like immediately dismissing any criticism as "special snowflakes getting offended by everything".
You have a personal responsibility not to harm your own community.
Everyone needs to learn this lesson at some point. You will either learn it now, when you're young, or you'll learn it when you're older and you've already driven people away from you.
Either way, you gotta learn it.
You cannot repeat conservative bigoted talking points and keep insisting your intentions are good.
If you actually want to be a good person who supports other minorities, you have to learn to act like it. You have to learn to listen when people tell you you've done something harmful. You have to learn to listen when it is explained that you are repeating exclusionary talking points that harm the community.
[ID: A screenshot of a post by dulce de calabaza / zapatistarising, that reads, "There's actually no political label or identity that absolves you of doing harm". End ID.]
I suggest you try learning it now while you're still young, before you've driven your community away from you with your hateful behavior. No one likes a bigot.
And no one wants to hang out with someone who immediately starts insulting people and all but calling them special snowflakes when they're told they've said something bigoted.
