The article located here, and elsewhere on the net, is astounding. I’m not going to bother linking the other articles because they’re all pretty much the same except for their biases. (Some media outlets are implying that it’s okay, others are calling it what it is.)
The short version is this;
The Seattle pride festival has now been split into “Pride” where everyone can attend and “Pride for people of color” where white people and their accomplices must pay $10 – $50 to attend. Essentially the POC folks are charging a “Poll Tax” to white folks. How much you pay is apparently some arbitrary bullshit sliding scale that is undefined. Meaning that even mixed couples, if they want to attend together will be charged.
So while LGBTQ Inc. says, “We’re fighting for inclusion,” they’re actually fighting for segregation.
They’re fighting racism… With Racism!
This was the first time this morning my brain “Blue Screened” and rebooted.
Picture this; A mixed couple is on a budget. They get into a fight about the cost (which they can’t plan for because it’s actually unknown.) The non-white member of the couple feels like their white significant other doesn’t value them. The white member of the couple feels like they’ll always be making up for a crime they didn’t commit.
Unless there’s a lot of love and understanding they break up, now you have two people who will think twice about ever dating or loving someone who doesn’t look just like them.
This folks, is how racism is born. It’s not always about hatred.
Sometimes racism is just about coming to the conclusion that it’s easier and more comfortable to not try to bridge the cultural gap. The wider the gap, the less likely someone is to spend the energy, much less weather the vitriol.
Straight relationships are hard to begin with. Mixed straight relationships are harder. Gay relationships are harder still and mixed gay relationships are even harder.
(Note: I use the term “Gay” in its antiquated all inclusive term meaning all homosexuals. I don’t have the time or inclination to create a truth table delineating all the permutations and combinations possible. If you’re offended… Well, Kiss my ass!)
What made this article bubble to the top of my awareness was this line.
“White allies and accomplices are welcome to attend but will be charged a $10 to $50 reparations fee that will be used to keep this event free of cost for BLACK AND BROWN Trans and Queer COMMUNITY,”
Accomplices? The reparations thing is complete and utter parasitic bullshit. I discarded it from my processing. Accomplices though caught my attention. Accomplices in what exactly? That word is commonly used in the description of criminal behavior. To what crime exactly are these jackasses referring?
I sure as hell don’t know. Especially since the gay community that I remember fondly was welcoming of everyone.
At the time, the gay movement couldn’t afford to be divisive or exclusionary because there were so few places where gay folks could be gay with other gay people, without repercussions.
Fire Island, Palm Springs, San Francisco, Laguna Beach, Atlanta, Key West. Those were pretty much it. To be sure there were bars in almost every city, sometimes only one, but if you wanted to be completely and unabashedly gay 24/7 these were the options.
Back then gay wasn’t cool. It was a fact, and it came with risk.
Now with general acceptance, has come a lot more gay-ish people. I’ve always thought sexuality was more of a continuum rather than binary. That theory appears to be mostly true.
Back in the day, a gay guy offering a “Straight” guy a blowjob had odds better than 50/50 of getting to suck dick. That was always true. These days, with greater acceptance the odds are probably better, though I haven’t tested the theory.
Apparently, since more people are embracing being gay-ish they’re bringing with them all the other divisive political baggage, which is simultaneously fracturing… No, destroying, what was once a fun, safe, coherent, vibrant, community.
Ironically, in my opinion, while celebrating “Pride” LGBTQxyz Inc. has trashed the pride the community once had in itself.
This Seattle event just underscores how low things have gone.
Blatant racism being allowed in the gay community? Who could ever have seen that coming?
Second time this morning my brain “Blue Screened” and rebooted.
“Pride” month has become more an embarrassment, or humiliation, than the celebration of freedom and joy that it once was.
People are fickle, at some point when the community is in complete disarray, unable to fend for itself, bias and prejudice will return.
I’d point you to Berlin pre-Hitler.
Berlin had vibrant Gay presence. Art, Entertainment, Fashion, you name it. Even members of the early Nazi party, and Hitler’s inner circle, were Gay.
That all changed… Suddenly and without warning.
Believe me, it can happen again just as quickly.
Gay folks, better clean the closets. Cause I suspect even the Gay-ish are going to be heading back in, real soon.