Apparently Everyone Just F*cking Loves Us Now

Usually we, the queers of the internet, feel like the world we live in is, on any given day, somewhere on the spectrum between “indifferent” and “openly hostile” to people like us. We’re not saying we like it, we’re saying it’s the status quo. But lately, as people whose job it is to check Google News obsessively for things tagged “gay” and “lesbian,” we’re noticing a weird trend where people seem to be really into/protective of us? Like, the people calling out other people for inappropriate and homophobic behavior aren’t just gay activist organizations who are funded largely by their director’s mother and a series of vegan bake sales, but other, straighter people as well. What is this fresh hell new thing? Here, we’ll share some examples with you.

TARGET:

We’re all very upset with Target for donating $150,000 to anti-gay Republicans, but much like those Republicans themselves, I think we had all assumed that there was not a whole lot we could ultimately do about this; it seemed like a lukewarm apology from a Target exec was the best we were going to get. But Queerty found this graph about the amount of “buzz” (which is apparently a real thing that can be quantified) around Target, and guess what? There’s a pretty major dip around early August, when Targetgate 2010 began. I’ll be honest with you, I just don’t think there are that many queer Target shoppers in America; my completely unscientific analysis says that there are quite a few straight people who have also moved on to more politically progressive pastures. Way to go, straight people who want to buy floor lamps for $10 but drive right on by the Target anyways on principle! (@queerty)

STEPHANIE RICE:

Is an Australian swimmer who used the word “faggot” in one ill-fated tweet, and despite apparently being the Aussie Michael Jordan of product endorsements before this incident, has since lost a sponsorship deal with Jaguar and possibly also Davenport, SunRice and Channel 7. She has since issued an apology for the event which, in contrast to other celebrity apologies for the same thing, which often seem as though they’re annoyed they couldn’t make an intern do this for them, is actually more like Halle Berry’s Oscar speech: an enormous cryfest. It’s like this is a really big deal to people? Don’t get me wrong, this is a good thing, but is anyone else just amazed that the rest of the world suddenly cares? (@queerty)

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NFL:

I mean, you guys have to see where I’m coming from with this one, right? If there is one place at least in America where no one cares about gay jokes, it’s the NFL. But when Dan Hampton made an unfunny Brokeback Mountain joke on his show Pro Football Weekly, everyone got legit up in arms and now it looks like he’ll maybe apologize. Granted, this joke came along with an arguably even more tasteless one about Hurricane Katrina, but still! What is this world coming to? (@glaad)

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Rachel

Originally from Boston, MA, Rachel now lives in the Midwest. Topics dear to her heart include bisexuality, The X-Files and tacos. Her favorite Ciara video is probably "Ride," but if you're only going to watch one, she recommends "Like A Boy." You can follow her on twitter and instagram.

Rachel has written 1142 articles for us.

31 Comments

  1. I do hope that this is indicative of the massive, inevitable shift toward less hate, less homophobia, less ignorance out there in the world.

    Thanks for a hopeful post!

  2. This makes me happy and hopeful. :) Thanks for starting my day out with sunshine, AS!
    (Also Australian accents, which I love. Mmmmm. More please)

  3. This reminds of the time Gay Activist told my grade 9 class about how they went to a school where they had to remind students that bullying homophobes wasn’t good, either. Cool, eh?

  4. about a month ago i overheard two guys talking about going to a bar and one said “but aren’t there going to be a lot of faggots there?” or something to that effect, and the other guy totally called him out on it and said “gay people are people too, we’re going out to go get drunk, not hate on people who don’t deserve it”.

    AND I WANTED TO CRY.

  5. I feel like we’ve been in an abusive relationship with like. The World. For the past 100 years and we just met someone who “seems nice”.

  8. As an Aussie, I feel obliged to tell you that I am sick of Stephanie Rice, and how come my brother doesn’t lose his xbox for saying faggot? HUH?!

    • I think MS should instant-kill people’s xbox when they use homophobic slurs (or any other kind discriminatory crap), drive to their houses and take it away. (To donate it to a good cause, obviously. Like “dykes in need of gaming equipment” or somesuch.)

  9. While I don’t think it’s okay what Stephanie Rice did, when I first heard that she’d lost her sponsorship deal I did question whether it was a bit of an over-reaction.

    BUT THEN I started reading comments on newspaper articles and was disgusted by the amount of idiots who were claiming that the word faggot has become ‘Aussie slang’ and ‘is part of the Australian spirit’. It confirmed to me that yeah, we clearly do still need to make a big deal about this sort of thing.

    • I dunno… People get sponsored because they’re role models and the companies hope that the fans will buy whatever their role model endorses. I totally get why executives wouldn’t want to sponsor homophobes or racists .

  10. Great, I’m totally going to have a big ass party when what happens on Google News happens in real life, in my neighborhood.

    Or, maybe a parade. I fucking love a good parade.

  11. This reminds me of when I was 13 and my friend said gayass and I gave her a long lecture about how if she did that one more time, I was gonna cut a bitch. The next day she punched her brother in the nose for using gay as an insult and called me freaking out because she thought she broke it.

  13. Today I was sitting in the cafe downstairs from work and Ellen was on the teevee and Adam Lambert was on the radio and I was like “wow.”

    And then that creepy guy from that course I took started hitting on me again and I lost that magical feeling. *sigh*

  14. I live in a civilized country. So this is the norm.

    An example.

    Population 300.000
    metropolitan area 210.000
    Reykjavík 120.000
    Gay pride 2010 70.000

Comments are closed.