Thread by @joshuabadge

I am about to officially lose it over this ridiculous article about “queer fascism”. How dare you @smh

Tens of thousands of gay people were arrested, tortured, sent to concentration camps and murdered by fascists. They were treated with exceptional violence and cruelty. I cannot even begin to explain how deeply, deeply homophobic it is to call queers fascists

Pierre Seel, a gay concentration camp survivor, writes of his lover being brutally murdered: 'One day the loudspeakers order us to report immediately to the roll-call. Shouts and yells urged us to get there without delay [for] an execution. Two SS men brought a young man...

...to the centre of out square. Horrified, I recognized Jo, my loving friend, who was only 18 years old. Now I froze in terror. I had prayed that he would escape their lists, their roundups, their humiliations. And there he was before my powerless eyes, which filled with tears.

Now I froze in terror. I had prayed that he would escape their lists, their roundups, their humiliations. And there he was before my powerless eyes, which filled with tears. The the loudspeakers broadcast some noisy classical music while the SS stripped him naked and shoved...

... a tin pail over his head. Next they sicced their ferocious German Shepherds on him: the guard dogs first bit into his groin and thighs, then devoured him right in front of us. His shrieks of pain were distorted and amplified by the pail in which his head was trapped.

My rigid body reeled, my eyes gaped at so much horror, tears poured down my cheeks, I fervently prayed that he would black out quickly. Since then I sometimes wake up howling in the middle of the night.'

So yes, *how dare* anyone use the term 'queer fascist' or any similar term

And what merits such a disgusting, ahistorical and homophobic slur? Calling out and rejecting Folau's virulent homophobia, of course. Because we got same-sex marriage we need to 'celebrate' people who hate and demonise us, so the argument goes

This is a childish notion of 'tolerance' which assumes that every position is reasonable. Many views are prejudiced, hateful and should be resolutely rejected. We wouldn't point to someone talking about the inferiority of women and say 'oh but we must be tolerant' would we?

Grace-Cohen's argument is that people have been 'punished' by 'queer fascists' for speaking out against 'transgender ideology'. Her beef is, essentially, that people get into trouble for being transphobic dipshits these days. See: Greer, Humphries et al

Now folks, there's no two ways about this. Transphobia is an immoral, backward prejudice that we must stamped out. Serial transphobes deserve to be called out, challenged and ought to face consequences. They are *actively* harming people

theconversation.com/germaine-greer…

Also, just to be clear this isn't about 'demanding compliance' it's about demanding our rights as human beings. It's about respect. Criticising homophobes and transphobes is legitimate, reasonable and extremely necessary. I can't even believe that this needs to be said in 2019

The suggestion that we're a raving band of animals attacking people left and right is just preposterous. All we do day in and day out is desperately try to find 'reasoned arguments' to justify our existence to doctors, policy makers, institutions and bigots in the street

There are whole fields of academic study basically dedicated to this. And the idea that Folau is somehow experiencing oppression, I mean, c'mon. Really? You're going to compare him to Galileo and Darwin? Excuse me while my eyes roll out the back of my head and down the street

And as for this crock of shit, god. Hate speech isn't only reserved for literally inciting to kill people. Folau directed hostility and revulsion on the basis of an arbitrary human characteristic at a vulnerable category of human beings. It's hate speech. Thank you, next

Men like Folau, Shelton, Bernardi are why I tried to kill myself multiple times as a teenager. Men like them are why I self-harmed. The political action of homophobes, whether it's campaigning against our rights or telling us we're sinners, has violent consequences in our lives

Where are the opeds on queer youth sucide? About gay hate crimes and harassment? Where are the columns inches, the sympathy for the queers who don't make it? I know it's not ~cool~ to care about things but fuck, I'm mad. Retract this garbage piece, apologise and do better @smh