M³ | The Blog

Came across a post in my social feed today that went something like:

“I'm tired of Pride, why do these people get a month-long celebration because of who they have sex with?”

That person caught an instant block from me. I didn't comment because I've learned that it's pointless to argue in online spaces with people like that. I've learned that arguing with them can even do harm by increasing their visibility and reach, so I won't be naming the person or linking to the post. However, I've also learned that it can be productive to call that sort of shit out and explain why it's shit for the “I'd never thought about it” crowd. So here it is, a little explainer from me to you:

The “I'm not a bigot, but why does it matter who a person fucks” take is a bad one because it ignores the context of Pride. Like, a metric fuck-ton of context. It ignores the long and awful history of cis-het people's oppression of queer people. It ignores the many, terrible examples of hateful bigots murdering queer people for their queerness. It ignores the American Right's ongoing fascist project to erase queer people, especially (right now) trans people.

Pride is not, nor has it ever been: “Yay, I'm a man who likes to have sex with men!” Pride is: “We are queer, we are here, we will support one another, and we will not be terrorized into silence. We will never let you fucking fascists erase us.”

Whether the author of the shit opinion that prompted this writing ignored all that context intentionally or not is beside the point. Context matters. Always.

Know more, believe less.