If you haven’t heard of “super straight” yet, hold on – Jammidodger catches you up and unpacks it really well:
Jammidodger (Jamie) identifies as a Bisexual Trans Man, and he makes so many great points about how this new thing of straight cis guys who don’t want to date Trans Women calling themselves “Super Straight” and saying it should be a new sexual identity as part of the LGB community is “massively transphobic.”
“Please tell me it’s a joke.”
–Jammidodger says it a number of times in the video, and I hope it is, too.
One of the most powerful moments of Jammidodger’s video is around 6:30, when he says,
”The thing is, straight people are not oppressed or discriminated against because of their sexual orientation…. Super straight people are not being denied the right to marry, or being fired, for being straight. Or being beaten up, or even killed, or their sexuality being illegal. None of that is happening to straight people.
”And that’s why even if this is a joke, it’s not funny. Because it trivializes the struggles and very real oppression faced by actual LGBTQ+ people. Just look at the level of discrimination, and hate crimes, and murder rate among Trans women, especially Black Trans women. People getting fired and refused for medical care simply because they are LGBT+. Straight cis people face none of this for being straight or cis.”
There’s so much more that makes me frustrated/disappointed/furious about this ‘super straight’ thing. Here are my top three:
ONE: As minorities make progress towards being respected, people who have power in our culture (straight cis men) are trying to undermine that progress by claiming they deserve protected status as well. By calling their prejudice a minority identity that should be protected. We see this with religious exemptions from treating Queer people with dignity and equal opportunity and rights, and it’s a strategy that’s once again being used to hold onto their power and keep Queer people – especially Trans and gender non-conforming and gender Queer people – disempowered.
TWO: This is being used as a wedge to try to divide us. There’s an uncomfortable history of prejudice within the Queer community, by comparatively privileged white Gay men against people of color, and by straight-passing Gay men and Lesbians against Trans and gender non conforming and Gender Queer people.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in my own journey as a Gay man is that we have to stand up for each other – that being the “G” of LGBTQAI2+ means I have a responsibility to stand up for Lesbians, Bi, Trans, Queer, Questioning, Asexual, Intersex, Two-Spirit, and everyone else who identifies as part of the Queer community. *
*And no, this does not include ‘super straight’ transphobes who claim to be “part of the LGBTQ+” It’s telling they won’t call themselves Queer, isn’t it? (Also kind of ridiculous that they included the T in this, when they’re all about excluding Trans people.)
Trans people have been at the forefront of fighting for all of our rights – the Stonewall Rebellion wasn’t started by white cis Gay men. It was started and led by Trans women of color including Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.
There was this theory in the 1950s (and beyond) that if we Gay men and Lesbians scrub up and wear suits and dresses and act in every other way like nice straight people with the only exception being who we fall in love with, that then we wouldn’t be so scary to the people in power and we’d win equal rights. And then, maybe, we’d have some power to bring up everyone else.
It’s not the 1950s anymore, and we have to fight for ALL our rights. I keep quoting Bayard Rustin, who was openly Gay, and Black, and organized the 1963 march on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and I’m going to do it again here:
“If we want to do away with the injustice to gays it will not be done because we get rid of the injustice to gays. It will be done because we are forwarding the effort for the elimination of injustice to all.”
Bayard Rustin, in a 1986 interview (quoted in my upcoming No Way, They Were Gay?)
Again, I’ve got to quote Bayard (one of my heroes):
“History demonstrates that no group is ultimately safe from prejudice, bigotry, and harassment so long as any group is subject to special negative treatment. The only final security for all is to provide now equal protection for every group under the law.”
–Bayard Rustin, writing in 1987 about the efforts in New York state to change a new law banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation
THREE: We need to talk about the connection between transphobia and homophobia here.
What are these straight cis guys afraid of? What’s behind the hate and violence against Trans women?
One piece might be fear. Fear of how it might reflect back on their own sense of self. Their own masculinity. What would it mean to their own identity if they were attracted to someone who fell outside the strict gender boundaries of being a cis woman? Would it make them have to admit their own identity might be something other than that of a straight, cis, man?
Would they be teased, or discriminated against, or seen as weak, or lesser-than, for having feelings for a Trans woman?
Would they actually be part of the Queer community themselves if they allowed themselves to truly fall in love with someone who was gender non-conforming, or Gender Queer, or Trans?
They don’t want to risk it. And maybe they don’t want to risk the privilege and power they get by being straight and cisgender. And that’s fine. They can stay in their safe, culturally accepted box and date their safe, culturally accepted counterparts.
But we should acknowledge that part of what’s behind ‘super straight’ is fear and these straight cis men’s insecurity.
To watch ‘super straight’ try to become a ‘thing’ is so, so infuriating.
On the plus side, I’m delighted to learn about JammiDodger.
He’s articulate, and passionate, and smart as hell. I loved the whole video, and this moment at 8:10 is one I’ll be quoting a lot:
“Freedom of Speech is not freedom of consequence.”
And I’ll end this post with how Jamie followed that up:
“And the consequence here for people who are coming out as super straight is you’re going to be told you’re an asshole and you are being transphobic. That’s not discrimination. That’s just a fact.”
—Jammidodger, 8:10
The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee
P.S. Thanks to my amazing teenage daughter for sharing Jammidodger’s video with me!
I loved that video! Thanks for sharing Jammidodger. I’ve got the J.K. Rowling vid queued for later!