Yes, pride month is finally among us: the time of year gays can be the most expressive they can possibly be. Unfortunately, however, June brings out a negative side of people. Particularly the people that have an issue with tearing down the heteronormative barrier in society.
To those people, you are homophobic.
I am so sick of people trying to put down the LGBTQ+ community in so many ways and begin by saying, "I'm not homophobic in any way, but..." Stop. What you're about to say is quite nearly the textbook definition of internalized homophobia.
Recently, I've seen fake news outlets publicize satirical headlines as a means of propaganda to stir up controversy that targets the gay community. Many people perceive this news as real, and often times, their homophobia really starts to come out when they begin expressing their opinions on topics that are far from true.
A lot of these made-up stories come from right-leaning satire site NPC Daily. The outlet contains the following disclaimer:
"NPC Daily is a satire site, providing political and cultural commentary with wanton sarcasm. NPC Daily pokes fun of modern journalism and liberalism. If you believe one of our articles is real, it's because the content is not too far adrift from what is published by mainstream news outlets. But, alas, our content is totally fictitious and is created to elicit laughs and bemusement."
Over these past few weeks, people have been outraged over the (false) rumor that Woody will be openly bisexual in the new upcoming "Toy Story 4" film. Twitter users have had some strong opinions on this matter.
You're usually not gonna catch me talking about my views on society on social media but are they really about to make Woody a bisexual in Toy Story 4. The character's been around for 24 years and now we're gonna suddenly change him because complaints of society. Just deal with it
— CamdenJGriffith (@GriffithCamden) June 1, 2019
If Woody is actually bisexual in Toy Story 4 I'm not watching it
— Miller (@anthonyfm_8) June 3, 2019
Disney announced Woody would be openly bisexual in Toy Story 4. First of all he's a toy and it's a fucken children's movie stop pushing your political agenda onto little kids.
— Chris 🥵 (@ChrisTirado7) June 2, 2019
@Disney all of this gay bisexual 30 different gender shit ticks me off it just doesn't fit and if this news is true I will never see toy story the same ever again I just cannot fathom how ticked off I am don't make this true woody likes Jesse not MEN😡😡 pic.twitter.com/lQERpzcGgi
— Dominick Gentry (@DominickGentry8) June 2, 2019
First of all, I really just think it's funny how gullible people really are. Do you HONESTLY think anybody cares what sexuality a toy is? Do you seriously think anybody cares about who or what a TOY is sexually attracted to? I promise you nobody cares about the sexuality of these fake animated characters like you think they do.
That being said, though, why do you really have such an issue with it? Why is it such a problem to you whenever there is even a slight amount of LGBTQ+ representation in the media? Why is it a problem that it's being normalized? Why is it a problem that your children are learning it's OK to not be... straight? I'll tell you why it's a problem for you.
It's a problem for you because you're homophobic.
Stop saying you're not. Because if you try to argue that the media is "shoving an agenda" down your throat and all of the children in this society, then you're literally proving to everyone around you that you don't believe homosexuality is OK. You're perpetuating the systemic notion of societal heteronormativity. And you're refusing to accept the naturality of sexual fluidity. You're homophobic.
Let's clear some other things up. You're also homophobic if you...
1. Use your religion to scrutinize gays
It's funny to me when religious zealots and conservatives say that the gay community is overwhelmingly offended by everything, but I actually think it's the opposite. If someone says ANYTHING about Jesus and pride, Christians are offended. They take it as a bash into their religion and argue against it... in an extremely homophobic manner. Sunny Hostin claims that Jesus Christ himself would be attending pride and blatantly called out the Catholic Church's hypocrisy and history of pedophilia. Of course, people took offense to this and didn't even have anything to say about what's wrong with conservative religion. They only talked about one thing: that Jesus would never be at pride.
2. You don't think there should be gay pride because there's no "straight pride"
If you seriously believe this, you're not thinking about why pride exists in the first place. You're not thinking about the Stonewall riots and what it's taken to get where we are today. But most importantly, you're not thinking about the community's overall human rights and fight against persecution.
3. You mindlessly throw around the F-word and you have very, very toxic masculinity
Anything that you deem as "feminine" is "gay" and you resent it because for some reason you're not comfortable with your own sexuality and think it'll emasculate you. Get over yourself, Chad.
4. And finally, Stacy, if Chad is homophobic and you do nothing about it, then so are you
If you're not an ally, then you're not anything but a hater of the gays. Break up with him. I promise you he doesn't love you, sweetheart (and he's definitely cheating on you).
OK now stop being straight and go be as gay as you can. Happy pride everyone!
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