Why Do Queers Get So Fucking Angry?
2SLGBTQIA+ people are no one’s enemy. We are the scapegoat of the fanatical religious right.
This article was originally published on my Medium publication, Think Queerly, on March 5th, 2018. It has been slightly modified and updated.
Given the horrific murders — the hate crimes — propagated on the eve of the Transgender Day of Remembrance this past Saturday at the LGBTQ bar Club Q in Colorado Springs, Colorado, I feel compelled to share this opinion piece.
It sickens me that Queer people are being murdered.
It sickens me that people in power in the United States are purposefully spreading hate and lies that are making things worse.
2SLGBTQIA+ people are no one’s enemy.
Queer people are not destroying the family, morality, or causing climate change.
So-called straight people do that well enough on their own.
The lies being spread about non-queer people are being used as a distraction for more sinister means: to eliminate democratic government in the United States and become an evangelical-fascist-oligarchic state. Each one of those requires a scapegoat: queer people.
“A steady drumbeat of transphobic poison spewed by politicians and media influencers like Matt Walsh, Tucker Carlson, or the venal operator of the bigoted Libs of TikTok account laid the groundwork for these murders. And they are responsible for them.”1
Here’s the original article:
Why Do Queers Get So Fucking Angry?
Recently someone commented on one of my articles suggesting,
“…the relentless push to go beyond tolerance of homosexuality has resulted in an intolerance of Christianity.”
That’s fucking bullshit!
If someone wants to counter that statement, here’s why they are wrong.
Let’s consider history.
During WWII the Nazis rounded up Jews, Gypsies, undesirables, and homosexuals and sent them to concentration camps.
Most sent to the camps did not leave alive. They were gassed, shot, used in medical experiments, or used as slave labour until they died of injury or starvation.
After the war, homosexuals that were freed from the camps were often sent back to jail.
This is because in Germany Paragraph 175 made homosexuality illegal. That law wasn’t removed until 1994. Germany officially pardoned those convicted under Paragraph 175 in 2017. An important gesture, but much too late.
Take a moment to consider this:
You are released from a concentration camp. Then you are thrown back in jail because you’re not considered an equal human being. Most homosexuals who suffered through this died long before the P175 was rescinded.
They died ashamed of who they were.
The men of the pink triangle were rounded up like cattle.
According to eyewitness accounts, homosexuals may have suffered the worst treatment of any prisoners.
This is a must-watch documentary about Paragraph 175.
For the longest time in North America, homosexuals were considered mentally ill by the American Psychiatric Association.
The diagnosis of homosexuality was finally removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual in 1973.
In the 60s, 70s, and 80s, police in North America would raid bars, entrap homosexual men in bathrooms and parks, and ruin people’s lives because of who they loved.
We remember the Stonewall riots and the bathhouse raides of Toronto as a turning point in our communities. We stood up, faced the police, and the establishment and said: “Fuck you! No more!”
Decade after decade we have fought for legal and human rights.
We have yet to be granted full and unequivocal rights as LGBTQ people.
There is no consistency from country to country. Currently, the Trump administration is aggressively working to remove rights. They have tried to block trans people from applying to the military.
The Trump administration is removing inclusive language from the CDC. This is a nefarious way to start removing representation from public discourse and policy. If this administration continues on this path, I fear the worst.
So when someone makes a comment on my article that I need to prove LGBTQ people are at risk of losing rights in the United States, because he’s too lazy to take 60 seconds to find this information on Google (and then accuses me of being a crackhead because I won’t do it), I lose my shit.
This is why this queer, this faggot, can sometimes barely contain his anger — because of the history that has gone before me of oppression and genocide.
It appears that some white, heterosexual, Christian/Evangelical males think they’re simply better than everyone else.
No One Is Better than Anyone Else.
No one deserves more human rights than anyone else.
And if it seems that queers are in your face, well, get fucking used to it!
You see, for the last 50 years of my life, I’ve had to swallow your heteronormative standards and expectations.
You have flaunted them in my face. You have been shoving your agenda down my throat. I have gagged, unable to breathe with tears running down my eyes at your disgusting hatred, homophobia, and bigotry.
Take a moment to consider what it feels like to live in my shoes.
Some — not all Christians — are beyond intolerant of LGBTQ equality.
Thus, I don’t need to agree with your religion. I also don’t need to respect it, because religion is a choice. You might like vanilla ice cream, but I like chocolate. Get over it.
What I’m talking about are people who dare dispute I’m not worthy of equal rights, that they are somehow bothered because it’s difficult for them to be tolerant of LGBTQ rights and basic human dignity.
You need to accept I am equal and deserving of the respect you assume I have to give you without question.
It’s easy to write or say, fuck you.
Once in a while, that’s what I do. Because I’m making a point. Because I’m demonstrating how I’m feeling in the moment.
So if you are going to attack me in my comments, I’m going to treat you with respect — no matter how much of a fucking asshole you are. Don’t misconstrue my words when I write an article. When I’m expressing how I’m feeling, I’m expressing. That doesn’t mean I’m attacking you.
When you retaliate with anger and name-calling, it’s because you don’t have a leg to stand on, other than pure bigotry and homophobia.
You know you’re wrong.
You’re using anger as your method of diminishing me as a human being so you can feel better about yourself.
And to that I say,
“Fuck you!”
“After Colorado Springs, Speak No More of Progress.” By Tim Wise