TL;DR Nah, there's really no way for me to summarize without sounding like a giant bigot, which I may or may not be depending on a) what time it is and b) who you talk to about it. See below.
I'm gonna start out with one of those famous disclaimers no one will believe: I don't actually have any particular issue with the various denominations in the LGBT(etc.) community, hereafter referred to generally as "queer" people for concision, and there are a lot of reasons for that. Firstly, I'm Christian, so really I'm not supposed to have issues with people in general, and even if I do I'm meant to go "meh!" and accept it. Regardless of that, I also do my best to be a calm and amiable person, and remain open-minded to the unfamiliar. I don't know everything, and it would be a dull life if I did.
Also, if we're being harshly, coldly pragmatic about it... we're just simply not talking about that many people, numerically. Hatred of the queer community is, from my perspective, a lot like racism directed at Inuit people or a modern crusade launched against Tenriism. With all the things in the world there are to be upset about, picking a tiny demographic's preferences/identities to rage over has always been a little mystifying to me.
All that being laid out, let's put on our shoulder-length gloves and plunge right into the sour bit. There are a few different trends circulating, and I want to talk about each of them (that I can remember).
First is my personal one, from day-to-day mundane social interactions, and is more a personal bugaboo than any broader social issue. The pattern goes like this: I meet a person (God spare us all), and introductions happen as normal, and they add "I am of [queer category goes here]." I have some reaction to the effect of "oh! Okay :D" and continue bouncing on through my day, being a dumb bear as I am.
The problem is, my fellow Millennials are usually saying these things to me and expecting a reaction, and my total lack of response is unnerving to them. People my age are, broadly speaking, terrified of meeting people, and so we sally out facts about ourselves trying to seem interesting and exciting. When someone reacts the way I do, taking what they say as a given and exhibiting no real reaction, I think we young people tend to read that as a dismissal, or as a concealed judgment of some kind. I also think that's a damn stupid way to read people, but I'm obviously just a tiny bit biased in favor of my own viewpoint on how I react to things.
That leads me into a question: why the hell am I being told this on an initial meeting, anyway? The standard "name, year, major" introduction is extremely boring, but it's also highly functional and, best of all, concise. Your name is a handle I can refer to you by, your year (and, by inference, your age) and what you elected to focus your education on give me some insight into what stage of life you're in, and what you like, and so on. The category you like to place yourself in with regard to gender identity tells me basically nothing about you specifically, other than that you might be interested in gender politics (which, when you think about it, basically everyone with a gender has an interest in by definition, so... not the most informative). It's a bit like pointing out your hair color; yeah, congratulations, you have a characteristic. Even if you colored it in a specific way to elicit a reaction, I've just really got nothing much to say about it. Nothing negative, nothing positive; that's just the way it is, which I thought was the point of the related rights movement (to be normalized and accepted).
Speaking of the LGBT(etc.) rights movement, that brings me to the next trend I've noticed: a great many people are drawing comparisons between this civil rights movement with THE Civil Rights Movement. I'm not gonna dwell on this long, but I'll leave you with a one-line input (which is a bitter pill, and especially bitter so soon after that horrible bullshit over in Orlando):
Y'all have absolutely experienced repression, violence, anger and discrimination, and a great many tragedies have struck members of the LGBTQ community, but let's not delude ourselves, shall we?
Thirdly, I've also seen a great many posts recently about exclusivity in the LGBTQ community. Titles include quippy one-liners like "8 Reasons We Don't Trust Straight People," "6 Things Straight Allies Need to Understand before Coming to Pride," and lots of other isolationist foolery in that vane. Again, you can see how this is a problem without my belaboring the point, but let me feed you this one: gender's not meant to be a club you're in, and everyone else is excluded from. I'm not going to make a club for cis-gendered white Christian men, partially because one already exists, and it's less a club than a Klub, see?
This is all an extremely long-winded setup for what I think about the issue of gender in our society, especially as it regards young people: it's "cool." Gender politics in general and the specific place and treatment of LGBTQ people in our society are some of the hottest topics in academic discussion at the moment, and it's natural to want a little slice of that social spotlight, I suppose. I just worry that the way we're starting to popularize and sensationalize LGBTQ people is ultimately going to become counterproductive. They're just ghosts driving meat-suits like anybody else, and I think the ultimate goal of the LGBTQ rights movement should be acceptance and normality, a world where one can freely make a statement like "I'm a gay man!" or "I'm a trans woman!" or any other identity and be safe and respected. We shouldn't be pursuing a world where we glorify LGBTQ people, or where we turn them into a sideshow sensation the way we're starting to now.
I apologize for the big blocks of text; my brain is made of molasses today. As always, share this wherever, and with whomever you please. If you liked it, or even if you didn't, leave me a comment or drop me the proverbial note at breakingberkeley@gmail.com. I do love the feedback. C:
P.S. I didn't talk about this up in the post, but a personal note: if your identity can't be explained to me in ten words or less, there's a decent chance it's not a useful way for you to identify yourself. Not that it's invalid, or that you can't identify that way or anything like that, but I would advise you to examine some of the terminology you use to explain "how it be," as they say. I also know that the creation of new vocabulary to adequately describe the range of LGBTQ people is currently underway, but... bear with me. Keep it simple, so we can all talk plainly together.
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