DiscussionOn LGB Progress and Where Credit is Due

submitted by JulienMayfair from self.LGBDropTheT

Over the last few years, we've all read the preposterous assertion "If it weren't for transwomen, you wouldn't HAVE any civil rights!" That's made me think about all the progress we have made over the last 50 years and who we should really be crediting for helping the LGB, and my perhaps-surprising conclusion is: heterosexual allies. We had many notable allies during the dark days of the AIDS Crisis like Elizabeth Taylor and Elizabeth Montgomery. We've had some heterosexual clergy who risked getting fired to stand up for us like Jimmy Creech. The list could go on and on of people who took principled stands for us even when it was unpopular and when they had little to gain.

We will always be a small minority, and if we didn't have a lot of hetero allies, we couldn't have won the victories we've won. It's also true that if we don't continue to have them as allies, we won't be able to maintain that progress.

In contrast, though there were certainly trans people who were involved, their numbers were never large enough to change the equation. Heterosexual allies provided the numbers that made the real difference.

I'm open to any discussion of this idea, but in my life, I've had support from many wonderful straight allies. When it comes to trans people, in absolute terms, I'd say that support was minimal, and if I were to sum up the positive and negative, the result would definitely be in the negative.

all 8 comments
sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun

[–]reluctant_commenter 24 insightful - 2 fun24 insightful - 1 fun25 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I'm still here for the LGBS (lesbian/gay/bisexual/straight) alliance. :)

It seems kind of ironic that heterosexuals came out in force to stand up for LGB people, specifically to defend us from... AGP men in dresses. Ultimately, though, LGB people are a statistical minority which gives us a vulnerability in almost any setting-- not to mention, an invisible minority at that. At the end of the day, we are all homosexual, bisexual, heterosexual or asexual, and it takes a lot of energy and courage to stand up for what is right, especially when the perpetrators are making violent threats and there is a real risk of losing your job and friends for doing what's right. I think everybody who does so in spite of the risks ought to be given that credit, regardless of their sexual orientation.

I do agree though:

people who took principled stands for us even when it was unpopular and when they had little to gain.

Seeing the straight people who stand up for LGB rights, like this straight male ally who was beaten up by trans rights activists, has made me want to stand up for others in contexts where I don't benefit, either. Gotta share the love around. And pay it forward.

[–]oofreesouloo⚡super lesbian⚡ 9 insightful - 1 fun9 insightful - 0 fun10 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Wow thanks for sharing that link! What a brave guy!

[–]fuck_reddit 19 insightful - 1 fun19 insightful - 0 fun20 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I wholeheartedly agree. It infuriates me when other LGB people are belligerent or hateful towards straight people, because everything we have is due to the good-will of straight people. And honestly, how hard is it to be polite to people?

[–]IridescentAnacondastrictly dickly 15 insightful - 1 fun15 insightful - 0 fun16 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Heterosexuals rock!

[–]Three_oneFourWanted for thought crimes in countless ideologies 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

It's true. If all straights wanted us dead, we probably woudn't be here right now. It was the straight people who believed in human rights that made it possible for us to reach this point. Without them, our voices would have been too small and too easy to squash.

[–]barnarnasis this tv show my friend? 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

(Potentially incoherent lol it's late and I have a lot of feelings)

THANK YOU jesus christ "the A is not for ally" and the straight part of GSAs being for closeted people annoys me to no end. I don't know if this belief came before tW gAvE yOu RiGhTs but they go hand in hand and are equally as regressive.

I definitely wouldn't be as happy and comfortable with my sexuality without the straight allies in my life, and it makes me sad that people would write off that kind of support just because it comes from The Straights.

When the Methodist Conference voted in 2019 to uphold their ban against same-sex marriage and lgb clergy members, my mom turned her back on the church she'd been a part of for her entire life. (The original plan was to switch denominations, but now there's a schism I guess? Idk I don't go here.)

My old therapists mother started the first PFLAG chapter in their small west Texas town after her brother came out in the 70s.

A married same-sex couple living in the suburbs with their children enjoying the rights that were fought for will always be more radical to me than the most blue-haired of kweers.

[–]exponent2 3 insightful - 4 fun3 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 4 fun -  (0 children)

We got our rights through manipulation. We transformed our civil rights struggle into a fight between atheist/secular heterosexuals and conservative/religious theocrats. No one helped us because they liked gay people you idiots. So many dumb people on here.

This is like when black people had their history distorted and thought the civil war to end slavery was about helping black people. Slavery was a disaster for white people who couldnt afford slaves. The slave machine, wherever it went, completely annihilated white families and created massive, MASSIVE poverty and humiliation for white people who didnt have slaves. It was so humiliating that they were almost as poor and worthless as the black slaves that they might as well have joined them in the cotton fields because nothing beats how awesome slavery was for free labour. Who could compete with that? So thats why white northerners were so happy to go to war with the south...to destroy the ultra powerful economic engine of the south that was going to eat them alive. And then the history books wrote: "and white people were so awesome they sacrificed themselves to fight the evil slave owners" lol

Gay rights were always ignored until we cleverly transformed ourselves into pawns and a wedge issue between theocratic evangelicals and secularists. The theocratic evangelicals were anti gay marriage but they took on more than they could chew because they were also anti abortion, anti atheist, anti everything. People had no choice BUT to support gay marriage because if they didnt, that meant they had to accept the supremacy of christian theocracy taking over their country. But liberals hated us and didnt want our issue to be of any political significance. We tricked and manipulated them into fighting for it.

[–]MarkJeffersonRaga Shave 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Statistically speaking, Straights most likely made the first brick thrown at Stonewall. So r/AreTheStraightsOK? Yes. Yes they are.

In all seriousness, though. Drop the T, add the S, and let's get on with it. I think many people have either forgotten(or were never aware) that the acronym was not meant to be some exclusive club where people could(in perpetuity) look down their noses at others using their oppression status(like how Trenders use LGBT), but to get the public to recognize the different sexualities as legit and permanent, in addition to addressing the challenges of each Sexuality separately.