Monkey Mind

I have been Gay longer than you have been alive. I know the Lesbian and Gay community pretty damn well, as I was a publisher of one the oldest Gay newspapers in the US. I was also the manager of one the largest Gay bars in Texas. Before the alphabet soup started, It was just Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and the occasional Transsexual; there was no such thing as “Transgender” in our community. Queer was a slur, they tried to “reclaim” it in the early 90s, but most of us rejected it. Queer now is used by mostly “straight” fetishized individuals that have absolutely nothing to do with homosexuality. Our community is about who we are as homosexuals, full stop. Anything after the LGB has nothing to do with us. They are not homosexual; in fact, many of them are homophobic. We tried to be nice, accepting, and inclusive because we knew what it meant to be marginalized. But after 2015, we earned the same rights as anyone else. (Discrimination and marriage equality.) But this extended group came along, pushed us to the side, coopted with our organizations, venues, spaces, and even our flag, and demanded “so-called rights” we never signed up for. These TQA+ coattail riders are actually doing more harm to the actual transsexuals who experience gender dysphoria. They just want to live their lives and not be exploited by people with AGP fetishes. So no, there are thousands of us in the Gay and Lesbian community who are waking up and have had enough. We are taking our community back. If you want to do your own “queer community” thing, OK, just leave us out of it. And leave women and children out of it as well! – at Odessa, TX