Author Topic: Straight Pride  (Read 306 times)

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Offline kimmy

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Re: Straight Pride
« Reply #15 on: October 26, 2018, 04:13:05 am »
I don't give a **** about a flag but as an observer of humanity I am not surprised that the focus on identity groups and identity politics leaves some people feeling miffed.

This seems to be no different than those people who say that if there can be Black pride why can't there be White pride and that sort of thing. Identity politics divides people into separate groups, and you can't constantly tell people in one group to be proud of themselves and then demand people in another group not be.

The reason that "gay pride" is a thing is that historically gay people had to hide in the closet and be ashamed of who they are.  Gay pride is gay people saying "we're not going to hide in the closet and we're not going to be ashamed anymore."    The idea that people who've never had to hide in the closet need to have their own pride event is just clueless and laughably sad.   Every day is "straight pride" day.


This sort of thing is always framed as "I'm not attacking gay people, I'm just standing up for straight people!"  Like, standing up against what?  Are straight people under attack from some unseen foe?  Is it gay rights that straight people feel threatened by?

Politicians do the same. Not much in Canada anymore, but definitely in the US still. "I'm not attacking gay people, I'm defending traditional marriage!"  Defending it against what? Defending traditional marriage by fighting gay marriage?  How does that make sense?   (ever notice that in the US the biggest defenders of "traditional marriage" include never-married childless spinster Ann Coulter, serial adulterer Newt Gingrich, and multiple-kids-out-of-wedlock abstinence advocate Bristol Palin? I think it's funny.)

Which brings us to the identity politics issue. The notion that only the left is involved in identity politics is wrong.   Now, it's certainly not as prominent in Canada as in the US (and maybe that's why the Canadian right wing is less successful than the US right wing.)   In the early days of the newly united federal Conservative Party, Jason Kenney's ethnic outreach strategy was telling conservative ethnic groups "hey, we hate gay marriage too! vote for us!"  In the US there's this ongoing meme of "Christian persecution" as Republicans tell Christian voters, especially evangelicals, that their religion is under attack.  There was a huge gay rights controversy in Indiana in 2015 when Mike Pence and the Republicans there signed a "religious freedom" law that essentially legalized discrimination against gay people if it was done for religious reasons.  Was that an identity politics episode? Yes. Was it the gay people and their allies who were playing identity politics?  No, it was the Republicans pandering to evangelical voters who were playing identity politics.  And this is a message you hear over and over in US politics (and sometimes in Canadian politics as well.)   "Christians are under attack from gay rights."  The politicians promoting that message are certainly playing identity politics, but maybe you don't recognize it as such because it's not a small minority being pandered to.

 -k
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