36 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
36 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
# On throwing around queerphobia accusations
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<small>2021-08-19 | [@andrea](/@andrea)</small>
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One day we were having technical issues: the emails with login codes were being sent out as requested,
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but for many people they were ending up in the spam folder.
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That day we got the following email:
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> “Give me my new code ya homophobes😑”
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Another thing that we see quite often in people's cards is a description like this one:
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> “It didn’t let me add paw/pawself and boe/boeself kinda transphobic”
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Sure, policing someone's neopronouns would be transphobic. And that's why we don't do that.
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Paw can easily link to paw's pronouns by putting in all five grammatical forms
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([paw/paw/paw's/paw's/pawself](https://en.pronouns.page/paw/paw/paw's/paw's/pawself)),
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by using a shorthand notation for the nameself pronouns ([:paw](https://en.pronouns.page/:paw)),
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or by using a generator that's available in the [Pronouns](/pronouns) section.
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We talk about it in the instructions in the card editor –
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if only people would read them before rushing to get angry…
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But, oh well… It's not like it's a big deal for us personally. We'll roll our eyes and move on.
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But the issue is a bit bigger than that.
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How many times have you heard someone jokingly say something like
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“They've run out of my favourite pretzels, how homophobic!”?
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It seems to be a common joke in the community, isn't it?
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Sure, it might be funny, it might help blow off some steam, or whatnot.
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But think about how it **dilutes the meaning of the word**.
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There's _actual_ queerphobia destroying people's lives all around the world –
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but you use that word to describe a _minor inconvenience_ completely unrelated to your gender or orientation?
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Think about it… If you message a group of queer volunteers doing their best to create a free website for the community,
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and you call them “homophobes”, how do you expect allocishet people to take queerphobia seriously?
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