#HeterosexualPride is #Bullshit
Every day is heterosexual pride day, you idiots
This past June, the month in which Gay Pride is celebrated all throughout the US each year, I saw a perturbing trend appear: #HeterosexualPride
Last week, in the midst of many Gay Pride celebrations, #HeterosexualPride starting trending on twitter. Of course, the LGBTQA community had a pretty good response to this. Below is one of my favorites.
When the gay community clearly saw right through the bullshit trend, some proud heterosexuals argued that there should be a Heterosexual Pride celebration, because that would mean “true equality.”
If you were truly worried about equality, you would see that the Gay Pride celebrations don’t somehow put gay people “above” you in society. Gay Pride is a reminder that the LGBTQA community is standing together, and still fighting for equal rights in this country.
I’m not saying that straight people shouldn’t be allowed to love their sexuality. What I am saying is that straight people should feel lucky that they don’t NEED to have Pride celebrations.
Gay Pride celebrations exist today because of the Stonewall Riots in June of 1969. If you don’t already know, the Stonewall Riots were a reaction to brutal police raids against the marginalized gay community in NYC, and they sparked a rise in the gay rights movement. Pride honors those involved in the Riots, as well as brings the LGBTQA community together to work toward a better future. Maybe we’d need a Hetero Pride if victims of straight hate crimes were something that existed. Or if the heterosexual community wasn’t already the overwhelming majority, and wasn’t the group of people perpetrating hate against the gay community.
In the wake of the Orlando Shooting, I honestly find #HeterosexualPride to be disrespectful. The media is already trying to erase the fact that the victims of the tragedy in Orlando were queer people of color, and #HeterosexualPride is just another way of putting the focus back on the straight white majority.
(Hmm, just like when the 2015 movie Stonewall was whitewashed and removed the fact that trans women of color were at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots? It’s almost like history repeats itself!)
The proximity in time of this mass hate crime and the outburst of the straight pride trend just makes me think some proud straights out there got jealous of all the attention the LGBTQ community was getting — because of a freakin’ MASS MURDER. How petty can you get?
It’s easily comparable to #BlackLivesMatter being followed by #AllLivesMatter. Complete bullshit. Why do so many people with privilege feel so threatened when the underprivileged try to bring forth their issues? Why does the majority need to celebrate already being a part of the accepted majority?
Oh. That’s right. Entitlement: The belief that one is inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment.
If you’re straight (especially if you’re straight, white, and male), please, for the love of God, check your privilege. You don’t need a parade — you get to go through life knowing you won’t be shot because of your sexuality.
If you truly want to help those facing inequality, here’s just a few links to organizations that help the LGBTQA community:
Los Angeles LGBT Center (Including housing for homeless youth)
Trans Women of Color Collective
Just so you know — I’m straight. My skull’s just not thick enough to make me think that straight people are in need of more representation than they already have. And, if you share my opinion on the matter, join me in having a laugh at the one person who showed up to the Seattle Heterosexual Pride “Parade.”