You know how every time Pride Month comes around with the parades and coloured crosswalks, you start seeing comments like, \u201cI don\u2019t care if you\u2019re gay, just don\u2019t shove your sexuality in my face.\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, I\u2019ve been thinking about that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
See, straight people like this don\u2019t actually care if LGBTQ people march in parades. Here in Lethbridge, for example, our annual summer fair kicks off with a parade, and I bet there are a few LGBTQ people in that parade. And these straight people don\u2019t care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These straight people don\u2019t actually care if LGBTQ folk march. It\u2019s not the marching that\u2019s the big deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These straight people don\u2019t like knowing that LGBTQ people aren\u2019t straight when they\u2019re marching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They want to assume everyone is straight. They want to assume everyone is like them. Because if everyone is the same, then it\u2019s easier to justify their rhetoric of hate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s why they don\u2019t have a problem when other straight people shove their sexuality in their face with handholding, kissing, or hugging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because it\u2019s not the public nature of the sexuality that\u2019s the problem. It\u2019s that the public sexuality isn\u2019t the same as their sexuality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And if everyone isn\u2019t the same\u2014if there are gay people, and bisexual people, and trans people, and intersex people, and asexual people, and all sorts of identities that aren\u2019t straight and cisgender\u2014that challenges their rhetoric of hate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Actually, for that matter, when you hear people complain that there are too many letters in the LGBTTQQIAAP acronym or that there are too many sexual orientations and gender identities, it\u2019s the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are too many initials\u201d or \u201cI can\u2019t keep track of all these new identities\u201d is just a coded way to say \u201cI\u2019m uncomfortable that you\u2019re not like me and it delegitimizes what I was taught.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But that\u2019s good. It\u2019s good these straight people are uncomfortable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imagine what it must be like to grow up in a society where you think everyone else isn\u2019t like you, where you\u2019re the only one like you. Where society is designed for everyone but you. \u201cDiscomfort\u201d seems to be inadequate to describe that experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe it\u2019s time straight, cisgender people accept discomfort. Getting rid of prejudice and hate is impossible without discomfort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n