People have been posting and liking and rainbowifying profiles like there’s no tomorrow. It’s great to feel good when something good happens. And hopefully this will have a positive effect on Australia. But this is also a great time to read more things by LGBT people and get to know the issues more. Especially since sometimes reactions that we non-LGBTs think of as supportive or positive, aren’t. Here are 5 great LGBT-voiced articles:
- There has been a lot of criticism of the same sex marriage movement from within the LGBT movement as taking away attention from other issues or being an inappropriate focal point of activism. Regardless of your thoughts on the matter, here are 5 Battles the LGBT Movement Needs to Fight Next:
1. Violence against trans women of color
2. LGBT youth homelessness and criminalization
3. Economic disparity
4. Criminalization of LGBT youth
5. Health and healthcare [Read the whole thing] - From GLAD, a reminder that “[f]ewer than a third of all U.S. states have laws protecting people from discrimination based on sexual orientation, and only a handful prohibit discrimination based on a person’s gender identity or expression. There are no federal protections for LGBT civil rights.” This means, Gay Couples Celebrating Today Could Be Fired Monday for Being Gay
As Adam Talbot of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) puts it: “[Gays] can get married at 10, post those photos on Facebook, their boss can fire them at noon on the basis of their sexual orientation, and at 2 PM, their landlord can evict them.” That, most likely, is the movement’s next big fight: Most states don’t prohibit workplace and housing discrimination against LGBT people. [Read the whole thing]
- There has been a lot of schadenfreude about the reactions of bigots, drinking the tears of bigots and the like. While it’s a bad idea to police LGBT schadenfreude, gloating by straight people can be counter-productive in making it about us and our reactions instead of the impact of this on LGBT people. Here’s Notes Against Humanity saying I’m Not Gloating Today:
First of all, honestly, the first thing I thought when I saw those posts wasn’t “LOL YOU SUCKERS HAHA,” but oh my god, I can get married. Right here, if I wanted to. I no longer have to choose where I live based on where I can have a family. My wife, if I have one someday, will never have to be alone in the hospital because I can’t come see her, or vice versa. [Read the whole thing]
- From Consider The Tea Cosy, something else relevant to reactions that have been happening. Why You Need To Quit Calling Homophobes Closet Cases.
We don’t get many chances to make gleeful insinuations about someone’s orientation. That’s normally considered impolite, isn’t it? But when it comes to loud homophobes, we can gleefully let out our gossipy sides and speculate to our heart’s content. It’s a pity that by doing that, we’re throwing queers under the bus. We’re perpetuating the idea that there’s something salacious about queerness. That it’s okay- even in very particular circumstances- to mock someone’s internal struggles with a homophobic society. [Read the whole thing]
- Another from Consider The Tea Cosy that may be even more relevant to straight reactions to LGBT news now. Someone’s come out. So what?
This cooler-than-thou insistence on not caring about someone’s orientation- on it being irrelevant- is horrible. It ignores how hard it is to come out. It ignores the fact that this thing you won’t acknowledge as important could be something that they’ve been holding in for years. For decades. It shuts its eyes and ears to the harm that heteronormativity and homophobia have done to the person standing right in front of you. All so that you can feel good about how progressive and right-on you are [Read the whole thing]
There are loads of other resources out there, being shared a lot especially this weekend. By using this opportunity to find out more, we straight people can do our bit to keep the momentum — in a way that goes beyond riding the current rainbow wave on social media. As was well-said by this person at a celebration rally:
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