STRAIGHT 👏 PEOPLE 👏 DO 👏 BELONG 👏 IN 👏 THE 👏 QUEER 👏 COMMUNITY 👏
Straight trans people are part of the community
Straight asexuals are part of the community
Heterosexual aromantics are part of the community
And for those people who are entirely cishet allosexual and alloromantic, they are still fucking people deserving of respect. the fact that I would even have to say that is wild.
In a world where some queer people are convicted of sex crimes, where we are losing our rights in multiple countries, where we still have to fight tooth and nail for any progress, where so many of us are in danger from our fellow human beings for daring to exist differently than what is considered normal, why do we push away those who are the "normal". If you push away and attack those who aren't queer, why would they then stand by our sides and fight alongside us for change?
Not every cishet allo person is the enemy. Yes, some are bad, but why would we do to them exactly what they do to us? To pick out the percentage of that group and treat the whole of them like they are all terrible? Why fight against how we are treated, just to turn around and treat them the same?
And additionally, if queer spaces are negative and aggressive, how are people supposed to be exposed to the idea that it's okay to be different? Were you born knowing that you weren't straight and/or cis and/or alloromantic and/or allosexual? No, you thought you were straight and everything else because that's the default, that's the "normal" that you are expected to be. You might have realized at some point that you were different, but how would you ever have known the label to put to yourself if you were never told?
The world is progressing, in some places at least, for lgbtq+ awareness. But still, many people have no place but the internet to learn about queer identities. Education never tells you it's okay to be different. Many parents scorn queer folk. And many others simply don't think to tell their children about the queer community (my own mother, a queer woman, for example, never told me that it's okay for me to like girls, or anything about the queer community. Not that she wasn't supportive, but that she simply never thought to tell me, I only ever knew that she is queer because I overheard her talking on the phone with one of her friends. The only ever mention of queerness she made to me when I was younger was when she was giving me the lecture about the danger of stds ["you could get one from a woman too, not just a man. Lesbian sex -wich is totally fine- spreads STDs just as easily" -a direct quote from my mother]).
The point is, that for many queer youth, my younger self included, the only source of education about the queer community is the internet. If they, who believe themselves to be straight, cis, ect, are villainized by the queer community, why would they want to consume any queer media? If we villainize straight people, people who think that they are straight will not consume the media that would've taught them about whatever identity they are. Causing the same effect as villanizing queer people, that people would find out that they are queer.
You might think that this is a stretch, but consider this. You avoid media that villainizes you as a queer person, and therefore, you wouldn't see anything else promoted or opposed within that piece of media. I know that if the only queer media I saw when I still thought I was straight was media that demonized straight people, I would have stayed away from queer media, I would not have found out I was bi without queer media.
In conclusion.
There are straight queer people.
Don't drive away the straight people who would've fought by your side for the advancement of queer rights.
Don't drive away the people who still think that they are straight.
