Representation and Toxic Queer Gatekeeping
So this post about Willow and the representation of categories of queerness got me thinking, again, about queer gatekeeping and how destructive it is. So I want to share something with you guys.Â
A few months after I came out, I told my mid-20s cishet sister that things had gotten a lot better for me because I fit better into the queer community now that I knew what I was. She was fucking BAFFLED by that. âWhat did that change? I mean, you werenât out before? Havenât you always been? I mean, you liked girls before. You knew, I knew. Why does it matter what you are if youâre not, you know, straight?ââ When I explained to her that there was more to it than that, that people were more complex than gay, straight, bi, and trans, she stared at me, confused and said, âBut I thought the LGBT community was all...accepting of everybody.â I broke down gatekeeping and categorizations She sorta sat there just desperately confused and the deeper I got the more confused she got and in the end she was like, âThatâs fucking stupid. The pointâs supposed to be that you are who you are. Why does what you call it matter?â It doesnât, sis. It doesnât.  Congrats, it took you 20 minutes to figure out what I had to stew on for about 15 years. Well done, lady.
SHADES OF THIS NITPICKY GATEKEEPING SHIT STOPPED ME FROM COMING OUT UNTIL I WAS 29 EVEN THOUGH IâD BEEN SLEEPING WITH BOTH WOMEN AND MEN FOR ~ 5 YEARS AND WANTING TO FOR LONGER BECAUSE I WAS SO FUCKING SCARED AND CONFUSED THAT I WAS DOING IT WRONG BECAUSE GATEKEEPING CULTURE AND MEDIA WAS TELLING ME THAT THERE WAS ONLY 1 QUEER FEMALE SEX ACT [it's oral btw, which I hate no matter who I'm fucking. I'm only sharing because i feel like people need to know this stuff so they don't get trapped like I did - oral is not the only F/F sex act and if you donât like an act donât you donât have to do it]. AND SINCE I DIDNâT LIKE IT I COULDNâT BE BI/PAN. TURNS OUT? THATâS A GODDAMN FALLACY. I HAD TO TALK TO A BI GUY ABOUT NOT LIKING GETTING FUCKED TO FIGURE OUT THAT OUT.
Turns out, you are who you are and if youâre not 100% straight? Youâre queer. The goddamn end.Â
Representation and in-community gatekeeping is dangerous. It hurts people. It makes us afraid to come out of the closet because well if we weâre only A, B, and C we canât be X because to be X we have to be A, B, C, and D. So we must be Y but Y is straight and weâre not fucking straight. So we call ourselves allies while dying to be part of the community. That shit does lasting damage and keeps us on the outside of a group that we belong to. So watch yourself and open that gate up wider so that people who need to be inside can enter.Â
Queer people donât want to be in boxes so why are we building them?
IF A FUCKING STRAIGHT GIRL CAN GET IT, WHY CANâT WE?