[Vol. 51] "Libs R Annoying"
Queerwashing and being a proud snowflake.
First of all, apologies for the late newsletter today. Thursday nights are back, and that’s all I have to say about that.
Actually, I have one more thing to say: I folded my laundry when I got back from the bar last night. Not sure what got into me but let me just say that I’ve never had more appreciation, love, and respect for un-sober me. Ok, now that’s really all.
Let’s dive right into volume 51 friends :) And if you’re not subscribed, here’s my favorite button for ya –
I was going to write about corporate America today
– you know, how so many companies have been painting their logos every which color of the rainbow while still openly donating to anti-LGBTQ+ legislators and organizations?
No?
Well, Tessa Stuart wrote an amazing article about those shady donations for Rolling Stone this Pride month.
The term to know here is “pinkwashing” or “queerwashing”.
Just as companies love to “greenwash” on Earth Day – AKA creating a false impression of eco-friendliness to sell products or services – they can just as easily queerwash.
Now don’t get me wrong here, I’m not hating on the people or companies that show their support for the LGBTQ+ community during Pride with rainbow logos and queer-focused campaigns. I think that’s just swell – plus it shows just how much of an influence our community can have on business these days.
What I don’t find quite as swell, though, is when a company pumps out more rainbows than Mother Nature herself could ever conceive only to sharpen the knife for those that plan to stab us in the back later.
The culprits in question? AT&T, Coca-Cola, and General Motors have all donated thousands – to tens-of-thousands, and, in AT&T’s case, hundreds-of-thousands - of dollars to anti-LGBTQ+ legislators actively blocking the passage of the Equality Act and raising their hands in favor of one uninformed anti-trans bill after another.
Here’s a roller-coaster of a paragraph from Rolling Stone that kind of sums up the recent vibe here –
So yah, I was going to keep writing about that, but then I ventured into the comments section.
I know, I shouldn’t be doing that, but I just can’t help it. I can’t read an “inflammatory” article calling out corporate America and not take a little peek at what readers have to say.
Here’s a little gem I found when I took that quick peek –
Now here’s the thing – I know BlueTree is probably some troll account that spends their days bouncing from one LGBTQ+ related article to another, copy and pasting their “liberals r annoying” rhetoric. I get that, I do.
And yet still, I think this comment speaks to a lot more than just one troll’s opinion.
This comment isn’t just one comment, it’s a movement. The “libs r annoying” movement.
Hmm how to define the “libs r annoying” movement (a name I just assigned to liberal-haters, in case that wasn’t already obvious)?
I guess I’d say it has the same energy as a straight cisgender person asking a queer friend or family member why they have to make such a “big deal” about being queer.
“But why make it anyone’s business but your own? I don’t go around telling people I’m a proud straight man!”
Essentially, it’s gaslighting at its finest.
It’s taking something serious and deeply impactful and personal – like, for example, someone’s struggle to love and accept their queer identity, or a corporation’s funding of bills that will literally put LGBTQ+ lives in danger – and belittling it with a condescending request to “get over it already”.
It drives me crazy. So crazy, in fact, that I can almost see myself falling into the Libs R Annoying crew’s next trap: Acting up like a “liberal snowflake”.
Tomi Lahren, an infamous conservative political commentator, defines it this way: “If you think borders, walls, and immigration laws are ‘mean’, you are a snowflake.”
It’s all just so Middle School, isn’t it?
You know, the age when the only thing cooler than sitting at the back of the bus was to not care. The less you cared, the cooler you were.
And I honestly remember really buying into that as a kid. If I wanted to be given that ultimate title – “chill” – I had to tone myself down.
But come on now – we’re not kids anymore, and this is bigger than our Middle School hallways.
More anti-trans legislation has been passed in the last year than in the last ten years combined (via @pinkmantaray).
The Human Rights Campaign has crowned 2021 the “worst year in recent history for LGBTQ+ state legislative attacks” (and specifically trans youth … kids!)
And these kind of attacks have consequences. According to the Trevor Project’s 2020 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, 40% of respondents “seriously considered attempting suicide” in the last 12 months (that’s 2 in every 5 LGBTQ+ youth).
Big corporations like AT&T, Coca-Cola, General Motors, and the ever infamous Chick-fil-A are directly funding these attacks (and thereby their consequences) through their continued financial contributions to legislators and organizations with anti-LGBTQ+ motivations.
AT&T: You cannot be posting shit like this on your feed when you’ve made “at least 327 donations totaling $204,350 to 133 anti-LGBTQ legislators”, according to Rolling Stone (here’s a list of those donations compiled by Keep Your Pride, an LGBTQ+ focused corporate watchdog).
So, BlueTree, whoever you are, consider me officially trapped by your attempt to “trigger” an annoying lib.
Consider me a liberal fucking snowflake.
Folks, here’s how I see it. Ignore the gaslighting and know this: caring about the rights, protections and lives of other human beings – children and minors, in many cases these days – is not something you can be shamed or belittled for.
If ever you feel like you’re being annoying when standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, remember that every headline announcing each new anti-LGBTQ+ piece of legislation comes at the cost of life – the lives of queer youth. Consider yourself taking up space in their honor, and then take up some more.
Not caring may have been cool in Middle School, but these days, it just makes you an asshole. If you ask me, I’d rather be a snowflake.
Find me on Instagram: @till_kaeslin
Check out the newsletter’s home on Instagram: @thatsgaynewsletter
And that was That’s Gay, Volume 51.
See you in Volume 52, folks!
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