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