21 Gaycist Ways
If you don’t know the definition of gaycist, here’s a link that will explain it. And this next link explains 21 interesting ways to tell if someone is gaycist. It only gets into 21.
Here’s one I see all the time:
1. You’ve asked a same-sex couple which one is the guy and the girl.
This one is common, too:
8. You think Macklemore and Lady Gaga are the voices of the gay rights movement.
This one gets me all the time.
16. As a straight person, you feel you can adequately define what discrimination is.
But I’d like to add that some of these things are overlooked and not all gay people take them as seriously as others. I think intent is important and I never hold innocent mistakes against anyone. I don’t think that’s fair. The only thing about gaycism that really bothers me is when people try to exploit and profit on gays for either attention or monetary gain.
You can read the rest here. I highly suggest checking out the link and the author. Number 21 is probably the most offensive.
Queerbaiting on TV
This is becoming increasingly more common on television all the time. Queerbaiting is when a TV show hints around that a character or situation might be LGBTI, but it never actually follows through with an LGBTI storyline. Sometimes they will drag it out for weeks, a lot of this they’ve been doing on True Blood this season. The intent is to get gay people to watch, keep them hanging, and hope that something LGBTI might happen. I also think it attracts a curious heteronormative crowd, often for the sake of sheer curiosity. The worst offenders never actually follow through because they don’t want to alienate the homophobic crowd.
In case you’re confused, here’s an article that describes it in more detail.
It is never acknowledged on camera and you are left wondering if you made it all up. I’ve been trying to decide if some recent comments from Jeff Davis, the creator of Teen Wolf, are likely queer baiting or not. And if it is, I don’t even know if I can handle another show pulling a dick move like that.
Gay Patronizing
This next link is from Salon. I’ve always found them to be reputable. If I were to discuss things like this on my own without linking to something reputable some might think I’m making this all up, or that I’m overly sensitive. But the general theme of this post today is how gays often suffer passive aggressive homophobia and many don’t even realize it’s happening. For example, this article about Michael Douglas and Jared Leto insulting gays is something that most people, gay or straight, wouldn’t even realize at surface level. I remember feeling this way when these things happened. I didn’t post about it because so many out there seemed so defensive about the issue…and so willing to protect. I saw gay people shot down on social media too many times for trying to make this point. I decided it wasn’t worth the effort…at the time.
This was all in good fun, but Leto’s playing for laughs the process by which he prepared for the role of a person who felt uncomfortable in her body was not, really: “It was a very transformative role. I had to do a lot of things to prepare. One of the things I did was wax my entire body, including my eyebrows,” Leto said to the audience’s laughter.
Once again, laughing at LGBTI people. The most recent posts and updates by James Franco got me interested in all this, and I think this particular article brings up a few excellent points. As I said, I wouldn’t dare post my own thoughts on this, at least not at this time. I feel more comfortable linking to someone else who seems to nail it much better than I can right now. I highly suggest reading this.
Gay Wedding, Anti-Gay Marriage Dad
I think this next link sums this post up in an interesting way. A mayor in France who has always been anti-gay marriage went to his gay son’s wedding (and performed the ceremony) and made a few interesting comments.
Keep in mind this mayor has always been openly vocal about his stand on gay marriage.
‘When my son asked me if I’d do it, I immediately told him “yes”, because I did the same for his sister and because we get on well. I didn’t want to give the wrong impression of relations with my family,’ Bardet reportedly told his local newspaper Le Dauphiné Libéré.
He said he had never discussed same-sex marriage with his son prior to his union and has only known for two and a half months that his son is gay.
I bring up this point a lot here on the blog: highly conservative public figures against gay marriage who have gay family members and close friends.
This mayor claims he will NOT perform another gay marriage in his lifetime. He only did this because it’s his son.
Evidently, we all still have a very long way to go.
