Thread by @AlexPetrovnia

Fr I’m so tired of the era where queer assimilation was validated and the norm... we’re learning that it won’t save us after all and being ourselves again

https://twitter.com/kendrawcandraw/status/1375593892784058377

Like I truly believe the marriage equality decision and then corporations taking over pride and it becoming viable to market to queer ppl had a huge impact on many “more acceptable” (white, affluent, cis, abled) queer ppl believing they would be embraced if they just behaved

And the rise of certain queer celebrities (Ellen Degeneres, Neil Patrick Harris, etc) being generally accepted was interpreted as something that represented inevitable progress rather than progress that was fought for has allowed for acceptable queers to distance themselves

And while things like marriage equality and awareness of queer existence in the greater world are absolutely progress, it can’t be assumed that things will continue to improve without consistent effort

acceptable queer ppl who are content to leave behind less advantaged queer ppl (and assume that inevitable progress will save us, rather than concerted effort they could put in to help) are disastrous for the community at large

I truly believe this is a huge aspect of the public resurgence of anti-trans and racist sentiments within the queer community — there is a subset of queer people who don’t realize that our mutual oppressors are happy to use them against us and then abuse them just the same

Lil Nas X‘s blackness is definitely integral to his rejection of assimilative culture and I love it — centering more queer voices and people who face intersectional oppression is better for our community and moves us forward in the public eye

Tbh the idea that “more acceptable” queer people will embrace assimilative theory, thereby harming the rest of the community, and ultimately not creating the progress they claim — is not new. Queer people of multiple oppressive facets have always been our most progressive voices.

Anyway I love Lil Nas X and I love seeing him become an authentic queer figure in the public eye

Also if you’d like to read more about how queer people of color (especially those who bend gender roles) have always led the queer community’s progress, feel free to check out my story about William Dorsey Swann on Medium:

link.medium.com/uuGSvjfIYeb

If you would like to learn more about the history of respectability politics in the queer community, and the progress made by multiply-oppressed members of the queer community, please check out my thread on Marsha P. Johnson.

https://twitter.com/AlexPetrovnia/status/1359284931738931200