(no subject)

[geminigirl]

Homophobia bugs me...a lot.

Things like, "Well, what if people think we're lesbians if we go together to do x, or y"

*growl*

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/grimkitten_/]

I want to smack those people.

[slinkr.livejournal.com]

Would "you should be so lucky!" not go over well?

[geminigirl]

In the particular context, no. But it's a good response next time I hear it.

Thanks for making me smile about something that pisses me off so much.

[wandra.livejournal.com]

*grin*

That was my first thought too :-)

[crayolagrrl.livejournal.com]

Wow. I can't believe an adult said that to you and thought it was okay.

Heehee!

[entirelysonja.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that was a good one! :-)

(And I definitely think anyone who gets to go anywhere and do anything with geminigirl is very lucky indeed...)

[tigerfemme.livejournal.com]

Gah, what a thing to say...can we say "sexual identity issues causing major fear she'll be seen as gay?"

Maybe I'm overanalyzing, but this is often where this stuff comes from!

[geminigirl]

It was actually something adapted from one of the livejournal communities I read/post to, which statistically would make it not likely that it's an adult.

But you know what...I don't care who said it-young person or adult. It still sucks.

Re: Heehee!

[geminigirl]

You flatter me, sweetie.

[lcohen]

this reminds me a tiny bit of that entry i made about the woman who is so closeted that she doesn't want to go with her gf to a restaurant that isn't lgbt-owned for fear that she will be outed as gay because the two of them are at a restaurant together. do two women only go to a restaurant together if they are sleeping together? who knew? i've been letting women get away with going to a restaurant with me and then not sleeping with me for decades!!!

[geminigirl]

Similarly, friends of a friend in college managed to exist entirely within the gayborhood. The lived, worked, and shopped within a rather small radius...about the only time they ventured out of the gayborhood was to go to some of the gay clubs in another part of the city.

I recognize the value in supporting gay owned businesses...really. And I recognize the challenge sometimes in being comfortably relationship like outside gay space. (I hope that part makes sense) But there is a larger world out there, and isn't it equally important for us to interact with that larger world for a whole host of reasons?

[roosterbear.livejournal.com]

I thought of that entry first as well.

*nod*

[roosterbear.livejournal.com]

But there is a larger world out there, and isn't it equally important for us to interact with that larger world for a whole host of reasons?

Personally, I see a problem with restricting oneself to the gayborhood, and only dealing with LGBT-owned businesses. It's doing the very thing that we (at least I) criticize the homophobes for- making a big hairy issue of orientation. The ideal society, as I see it, would be one where one's orientation has no more emotional charge than the color of one's eyes. And in my experience, living as if it were so goes a long way toward creating that reality. (Maybe this is just wishful thinking.)

Personally, I like to go on merit. And there are a lot of het-owned establishments that have a lot of merit.

This doesn't extend to patronizing businesses owned by homphobic people/corporations. But usually their lack of merit, in my experience, goes beyond their homophobia.

another thing

[roosterbear.livejournal.com]

I think I remember reading somewhere (several somewheres actually) that the percentage of people who are supportive of LGBT rights is just about equal to the percentage of people who know someone who is LGBT. I think it makes perfect sense.

And leaving the gayborhood is one of the more obvious ways to expose the het community to us, and give them the opportunity to be more comfortable with us. Cloistering ourselves in Our Own Little World only furthers the Us vs. Them mentality.