To Queers Bitching About Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

What she said:

One quibble: not all gays have a problem with Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. This gay certainly doesn't. But I couldn't agree more with Arielle and I am so fucking glad she made this video. And this, this, THIS: "Allies are damned if they do, and damned if they don't. If they don't use their platform [to support LGBT rights], they are cowards. If they do, they're using our sexuality for profit."

Damned if they do, damned if they don't—we've heard this song before.

The queers complaining about Macklemore & Ryan Lewis now remind me of the queers who used to bitch and bitch and bitch about how big beer companies didn't advertise in queer publications or sponsor pride parades. ("Queer people drink a lot of beer! They want us to support them and buy their beer but they don't want to support us and our community!") But when big beer companies began advertising in queer publications and sponsoring pride parades... the exact same queers who had been complaining about how big beer companies weren't advertising in queer publications or sponsoring pride parades immediately started bitching about how the beer companies were trying to profit off our sexuality. ("The pride parade is not for sale! We are a community, not a commodity!") Blah blah bitchy blah.

Too many of the queer social justice warriors rattling around on Tumblr and Twitter are more interested in "criticizing allies for not doing it perfectly," as Arielle Scarcella says, "[and] that is not going to get you there any faster." No, it's not. Attacking people who are on our side and having a huge impact isn't going to get us to equality any faster. And if sane queers say nothing when our "imperfect allies" are swarmed by ingrates and idiots—and no one is perfect, ally or otherwise—then we're pretty quickly going to run out of allies.

Thank you, Arielle Scarcella, for making this video and saying what needed to be said.