2SLGBTQIA+ The Erasure of Gays & Lesbians from their own Movement
I’ll say off the bat that I’m old school. When I was young, being openly gay was dangerous. Gay men (especially white men) were targeted by gangs for brutality. The police were rough and often violent. In school, no one was out— that was waving a red flag to a jock for a beating. I lived in constant fear of being outed. In my church, the word “gay” was not allowed. I tried to talk to my preacher about it, and he turned away, would not look at me again, and handed me a sheet of paper (without looking at me) with the name and number of a reparative therapist (which I discovered on my first visit— fortunately, as f-upped as I was, I knew that would take me deeper into the abyss).
I had simple wants. To love and be loved without fear of attack or even death. Marriage was not that important— I wanted basic tolerance. But the legalization of marriage was amazing, and I’m grateful for it.
Back in the day, being out was about being authentic to oneself, but as important was allowing others to see you for who you really were and through that gain acceptance. People had co-workers, family and friends that were LGB, and there was respect, love and acceptance in these relationships but if the LGB was hidden then the biases remained entrenched. Coming out was then as much about being authentic as about showing others that people who were LGB were human with basic human needs (love and sex) like everyone else.
The movement today is unrecognizable from what it used to be.
A movement that started out seeking tolerance and acceptance has gone full blown fascist when it comes to cancelling, rejecting, expelling anyone who does not sign on to every line item of the 2STQIA+ agenda. In the original movement, children were off limits but the movement has pushed transitioning to minors and actively seeks underage indoctrination. “We're loud, we're proud, we're coming for your kids!" was shouted at many events. Those are fighting words. The chant is meant to be threatening and to provoke and to stoke fear (and coming from a population that overwhelmingly does not have kids it reeks to high heaven).
The movement has become an umbrella for fetishes and neuroses described as “queer” as a catch all term for anything not normative. In the current culture, there is incentive to be some sort of minority as that gains inclusion in the victim-hooding club. Whites in particular carry self-hatred and shame for being White (because the culture, led my feminists/wokers, bombards them with that message), and many try to escape this guilt/shame by adopting a non-straight male identity which has the added bonus of getting oppression points which is portrayed in much of the culture as valuable, even necessary, social currency. But that does not nothing to relieve the self-hatred/shame (and so, they strike out at others in a futile attempt at getting rid of it). The trans population has the backing of the medical establishment because they are cash cows. Money talks and money refrained the conversation to its benefit. How else did we get to the idea that transitioning children is okay? Seriously, that’s insane and abusive.
I’m waiting for the letter to designate people who think they are animals (oh wait, the vast majority of furries identity as queer). I’m shocked and dismayed they do not have their own letter and stripe on the flag. In Canada, it’s gone to MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+ which is meaningless. Gays and Lesbians have been erased from their own movement. A motive behind this is to use the goodwill generated by gays and lesbians over the decades to raise and divert money to other groups (it’s a bait and switch and at its core it’s dishonest).
The movement started out trying to make friends out of enemies— that meant police, people in the church, even rednecks— that meant reaching out to people who despised or hated you and may have committed violence against you. The movement today is all about making enemies, drawing boundaries of who is okay and who isn’t with gatekeepers everywhere casting out those they deem insufficiently pure in their beliefs and opinions (they are as bad as my church ever was).
Many in the TQIA+ community openly celebrated Charlie Kirk’s death along with other hardcore leftists. You celebrate murder— You are on the wrong side of the tracks.
The movement has also expanded to include additional agendas— Queers for Maduro (drug trafficker) Queers for Palestine— Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism— while ignoring the treatment of the community in Gaza and other Muslim countries (there are also Christian nations in Africa that are equally oppressive). Iran killed upwards to 30-40 thousand protesters in a week yet there are pro-Iran queer groups that seem unbothered by the mass killings (the same movement that went ballistic when 2 anti-ICE protesters were killed). This sort of selective caring is driven by a desire to create an alliance with Muslim populations in western countries notwithstanding that Muslims persecute the community when given the chance. I don’t think those of the community who align with such causes understand how insane it makes them look to normies. Because it is insane. There are several anti-Israel / Pro-Palestinian groups— I suggest their members go and live anywhere in the Muslim world for a year as their most authentic self and see where that goes. Be sure to leave behind a will if you go.
The current activist leadership that dominates the movement does not allow for debate, discussion or contrary opinion of any kind. So much so that I deem it to be a kind of cult. There is this idea that certain people are enlightened, and they are here to tell everyone else what to think (modern leftism) which is an old idea that repackages tyranny into something that appears palatable. Since there are many people who want just that (for someone to tell them what to think), this actually works quite well. The irony of course is that these enlightened people wish to close the door to any kind of other thinking or believing (they are enlightened, they know the truth) but any self-described “enlightenment” that cannot withstand open conversation is by definition unenlightened.
Given the exclusionary tyranny of the movement’s leaders, I believe the LGB should be its own movement. That does not mean being hostile to 2STQIA+ or to those gays and lesbians who choose to stay in the broader queer movement. But LGBs are about the biology and the + community is about identity. Being gay is same-sex attraction but it does not define personality— but the identity part of the community equates personality with identity (I have a judgment this is shallow and meaningless as it presents very surface level wherever I have encountered it). That is not a judgment for the entire 2STQIA+ community but to those in the community who confuse identity with a values system, with personality, with a moral compass, with who they are beyond how they label themselves). Beyond that, it’s a fundamental difference between the populations.
I think the pressure to remain a unified movement comes down to power by those who run things— numbers matter and they do not want to see other narratives get attention (intolerance). Also, there is self-interest to lie, to promote the delusion in order to keep the money flowing to the infrastructure that grew with the gay movement culminating in legalized marriage.
LGBs are about loving who you want to love. That’s it. What is queer movement about? Where is going? What does it want? It’s an entitled, privileged movement that would not last outside the comfort of the places they like to hate upon. No thanks.
There are areas where the two communities agree but there are many where they do not. Many LGBs are not on board with men who identify as women in female spaces (and female sports). Many are against transitioning children (indeed, many of the children are probably gay/lesbian not transgender). The fact that gays and lesbians are sexually attracted by same-sex biology also means they are labeled transphobic if they will not have sex/date people who are trans (gays and lesbians are not respected within the community). The focus on pronouns is off-putting (I would always use a person’s desired pronoun but I see no need to affirmatively present mine). LGBs have no problem if you want to present as queer but many present much like normies (which, in the current movement, is often labeled as internalized homophobia or in current slang as a “pick me” which is someone who acts different (even at the expense of) from their peers for validation/attention). In other words, the movement shames and shuns its own if they are not presenting in ways deemed acceptable (even though when the broader culture treats those in the movement in this way it’s labeled as fascism).
The queer movement has also metastasized into resistance against anything normative. Have a kink? Put a letter to it and join the queer movement. Bonus points for hating Jews.
Peer pressure and the fear of losing rights keeps many LGBs in line, but I’ve had enough conversations to understand that what I see is seen by many others— and they are not liking how the movement has evolved.
I’m all about respect. And that cuts both ways.
I will not adapt myself into a version of someone that the current movement deems acceptable. Piss on that! For a movement that started out wanting to live authentic lives, it’s tragic to see that it has become what it once most reviled in others. It’s a sad thing that we humans often become our shadows.
For the health of LGBs, it’s time for them to regain their voices and to speak without shame and without fear of cancelling.
We can do this with love— and sometimes, love must be given from a distance.
