LGB ErasureA place without annoying “cis” gays: new wave of queer bars revitalises Australia’s LGBTQI+ scenes

submitted by ChunkeeguyTeam T*RF Fuck Yeah from theguardian.com

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[–]Femaleisnthateful 19 insightful - 1 fun19 insightful - 0 fun20 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

“Queer is cool now,” Dopper says. “With the pink dollar, we’ve seen it with Pride, I’ve noticed it with Heaps Gay – they get more and more popular because queer is cool.”

There ya go, say the quiet part loud and then get mad when anyone suggests that this is a social contagion or a cynical commercial ploy.

It's hard to unpack what 'inclusive' means when words don't mean anything. Would my butch lesbian friends be welcome at a 'femme' bar? What kinds of people are she/hers and they/thems?

Anyway, I give these places a month before their woke employees start a woke mutiny like they're doing in the U.S.

[–]INeedSomeTimeAsexual Ally 11 insightful - 1 fun11 insightful - 0 fun12 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

There ya go, say the quiet part loud and then get mad when anyone suggests that this is a social contagion or a cynical commercial ploy.

Can't help having always a weird feeling seeing a friend of mine flooded with the LGBT merch by buying it in just some casual store. I am not even LGB myself but I have strange feeling to have such an identity boiled down to some rainbow-themed merch you buy in some store. It's a weird complex feeling because on one hand I recognize that it wasn't so long time ago when people were shamed for being just gay but seeing the explosion of commercial products centerred around it feels so cynical (appropriation?). Also why something as simple as being gay needs a whole bunch of merch like some big popular music band or brand? I don't know what to feel about this. I smell a strong cynical scent of capitalism joining a trend and turning being non-straight and trans into a shallow product to sell.

[–]PenseePansyBio-Sex or Bust 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I guess maybe it means something to people (like me) old enough to remember when this was truly unthinkable, you know? Generally-available LGB merch-- not restricted to either just one lonely shop in college towns, or "gayborhoods" in big cities such as San Francisco, NYC, and the like. Plus, gotta say: merch specific to bi people is still pretty thin on the ground! Sure, we get a certain amount of stuff... but it's dwarfed by the rainbows (and the goddamn trans colors, of course). No point marketing to us, I suppose, given that we don't exist and all!

So, while getting acknowledgement from the capitalist machine does mean something to me... I'm in agreement with you insofar as: it ain't much.