Friday, April 19, 2013

Q is for Queer-Bashing

It seems like you don’t get as much queer-bashing these days as you did back in the 90s, but it probably just seems that way to me because I stay home most of the time and refrain from interacting with people who don’t support me and my beliefs. Don’t tell me I don’t have the right, because f&ck you, I have every right.

Staying home most of the time keeps me fairly sheltered from the world, which is probably just as well – if there were a pandemic, I’d be one of those people who didn’t even notice (unless my neighbors dropped dead on their lawns, I’d probably notice that eventually). Even I can’t help but notice that American society has become much more accepting of queer people, which is great. We still have a long way to go, of course, but fifteen years ago I never would have dreamed that we’d see the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality. I’m so proud of us.

*sniff*

Sadly, I only have to turn to my hometown’s Topix forum to find a prime example of queer-bashing, in the form of this thread posted by a guy who’s losing sleep over the thought of a local resident using SSI benefits to pay for her gender reassignment surgery. Plenty of people stepped up to defend transgender rights in the thread, so don’t go feeling like you need to charge in there and teach the rednecks a lesson. We know how to type.

Of course, the only reason my hometown has a Topix forum at all, as far as I can tell, is so people can gossip about each other in the comfort of their homes, call each other names, and threaten to beat each other up. Caiden Cowger is from my hometown, and Jerry Falwell spoke at my high school graduation. That tells you all you need to know about why I no longer live in this place. There were plenty of twat waffles living there when I was growing up, and now they’ve bred.

I'm not sure what a twat waffle is, but it's not this.