On gay stereotypes

slaterwashere:

2gayvirgos:

Someone re-blogged a post of mine about being yourself and being true to yourself and made a point to add that they agreed so long as you weren’t perpetuating the gay stereotype. Read: It’s OK to be yourself so long as you don’t act like a flamer.

Then I see on Facebook in a discussion about how Kidd Kraddick used his airtime during this past week to make gay jokes and someone chimes in that some are funny and gays make it really easy. That if they didn’t want people to make fun of them they shouldn’t act that way.

What. The. Actual. Fuck.

I embrace the many types of people that make up the very large LGBT community, stereotypical, butch, femme or none of the of above, because more often than not you’re being yourself or what feels most natural to you. And I say good for you because it takes a lot of courage to be true to yourself, however diva-esque or lumberjack-ish you may or may not be.

So often the LGBT community is told by a bunch of assholes to “act normal” or “that’s not really who you are” to make THEM feel more comfortable. It’s hurtful and damaging and I don’t care if they’re comfortable or not and—BITCH, how the fuck do they know you AREN’T being yourself? Who cares if you’re so flaming you catch fire and shoot rainbows and glitter out of your ass periodically like the cannons of confetti in gay bars at the climax of a remixed pop beat?

Just because it may be a stereotype in the eyes of some of the ignorant and bigoted doesn’t make it wrong and it doesn’t mean you have to change to make ANYONE feel better because it’s not about THEM. It’s about YOU.

Babies - don’t let anyone tell you to stop being you. I don’t care what you do, who you are, how you go about living your life or expressing yourself so long as you’re SAFE and HAPPY while you do it.

Thank you.

Will always reblog anything along these lines.
I’m a diva and a queen and I’m proud of it. Fuck any bitches who don’t like it.

But you know what the ironic thing is? I’m not actually gay. Not in the ‘strictly homosexual’ sense, although I identify strongly with the gay community. I’m pansexual/bisexual/polysexual/omnisexual whatever the hell you want to call getting the horn for basically anyone pretty. But because I act like a ‘stereotypical gay’, nobody believes me!

That’s the problem with stereotypes; people expect that if you act a certain way, you must be a certain thing. In this case, if you act ‘camp’, you must be gay. If you’re gay, you must act camp. If you say things like ‘gay people shouldn’t act like a stereotype’, you’re just enforcing the stereotype. The problem is that the stereotype exists, not that some people conform to it. People should just act however they feel comfortable acting and not be judged for it.