rated-michael replied to your post: rated-michael replied to your post: Do you ever...
I agree that the LGBT community can’t go around throwing allies under the bus because they are a big part of why the movement is well, still moving. You can’t expect a minority on its own to get the job done, you need part of the majority to help.
I think it was another case of people not understanding "Lol, allies are hogging the spotlight/talking OVER actual LGBT people/getting to big for their britches, let's make fun of them for that". And it was another case of people not understanding who that was directed at; allies that were doing these things. They thought it was all allies, period.
And just her entire wording/anger at all over this just made me feel incredibly insulted, because she said "if you make fun of these allies, we'll just fucking go back to being homophobes". Like, wow, quickest way to make me never trust you again is to say how easy it would be to be homophobic, and if I make any reference to the fact that you're actually doing things that are bad, you're could go straight (pun not intended) back to it.
Like, that was literally a threat. If I said "hey, if I hurt you and then you make fun of me for it, just remember it would be super easy for me to hurt you worse!"
And then there's the issue of: LGBT (noted emphasis on the T there) are, and have always been, the front-runners of gay* rights. We were always the one's to get people on our side.
And to be honest, most of the contributions of allies that I've seen aren't stopping or speaking up against homophobia, but just not doing it in the first place. So while, yes, that's certainly good (no one ever said it wasn't); they are not putting nearly as much on the line safety or comfort-wise as any LGBT person. I think I've made this distinction before, but there are allies, and then there are people ok with gays. One helps us, one just doesn't hurt us. There are far more of the latter.
(and, just from personal experience, a lot of the people that say they're ok with with gays/actual allies fuck up a lot. Case in point is a moderate-liberal guy at my table, who constantly makes really stereotypical gay jokes, and thought it was ok to say "you're not enough of a faggot" to me. He would probably self-proclaim himself an "ally", but then this shit happens. And there are plenty more online that say and do things all the time, so yeah.)
(it should also be noted that my standards for being "ok" with LGBT people is a lot higher than most people, and gay people I know in physical space fail this all the time, lol)
