Authored by: Grayson on Tuesday, August 04 2009 @ 09:13 PM CDT

I wasn't there, but as a queer I'm really pissed to hear someone rationalize kicking queers and trans folks onto the street, saying their white skin would protect them. I know several white queers who have had the shit kicked out of them, who have been arrested for going into the "wrong" bathroom. Queers--yes, even white queers--have been assassinated for being queer. To exploit queer identity to justify your actions as a POC is offensive and homophobic.

This exemplifies something that endlessly pisses me off about the way radicals discuss homophobia. It's accepted without question that everyone is racist, has racialized fucked up shit that they've internalized, and that racism is an overwhelming problem that saturates every aspect of society, mainstream and radical. (I don't contest any of those statements.) Yet how many times have I heard straight people say without blinking that they're not homophobic. How can anyone claim in the same breath that their internalized racism is so deep that it requires perpetual vigilance (it does) and also that they've so quickly discarded all aspects of heterosexism from their hearts & minds. I'm not saying homophobia and racism are the same thing, but I have yet to hear a compelling reason that it's acceptable for straight people to say "I'm not homophobic!"

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