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Stop Treating Gay Men Like Hypersexual Perverts
It’s blatant homophobia, even when another queer person does it.
Pride Month is very nearly upon us, which means a variety of intra-community queer fights are getting kicked up yet again. I say “fights”, but what I really mean is “one-sided bigoted diatribes”. That’s the real problem. All kinds of queer people are professing that other kinds of queer people do not belong at Pride.
Some people viciously deny the place of Asexuals within the LGBTQ community. Others claim that straight trans people do not belong at Pride, or that bisexual people in male-female relationships are “straight”, and therefore not genuine members of the community. And some queer folks argue that Pride needs to be “less sexual”, “less kinky” and more family-friendly than it has historically been; on this point, the main lightning rod always seems to be gay men, who are unfairly perceived to be more sexually inappropriate than other queer people.
This assumption pops up in all manner of places. I’ve heard it at activist events, nonbinary support groups, on trans masculine discord channels, and in more Tumblr and Twitter posts than I can name. Fellow queer people frequently talk about gay men as if they are vapid, sex-obsessed, and politically apathetic. Frankly, it’s horrifying to witness. What’s even more disgusting is how often this bigotry goes unchecked.
It’s no secret that straight people see gay men as perverted, sex-addicted, and socially inappropriate. But it’s time we talk about how frequently those exact same homophobic views pop up in queer circles.
Take, for example, this Tweet by The Devils’ Daughter, and its ensuing response.
Before we get to the responses to this Tweet, I want you, as a reader, to do a brief gut check. How do you feel about the men on the left? How do you feel about the people on the right? Does one picture seem more intense to you? Does one seem more sexual? If you saw the couple on the left at a music…
