I am biased. I have been "curious" when it comes to the same sex- even if I have not engaged in sexual activity with the same sex, and anybody who knows me well will know that I love to put homoerotic subtexts in everything, partly for fun, for expression, to troll and the like. However, the comments on Youtube are pretty bad, and its what I would expect. There is a growing independent alternative right movement on Youtube, which kinda mirrors 4-Chan. You saw it with the reaction to Ghostbusters (which was a bad trailer, but the misogyny was clear) and its happened on smaller scales, especially with stuff like TED videos where Gender, Race and Equality where prime topics of discussion. There was a video Ted aired about a women who was Raped and gave a talk with her confession rapist and the comments section was almost immediately deleted. Would I consider myself LGBTQ. Probably not, but I would consider myself an "ally" partly because I see the parallels between Civil Rights and LGBTQ and as someone who has sexual preferences which could be described as "Kinky" and relatively non-normative especially amongst my peers (There is a some talk of LGBTQ being expanded to include Kinkiness, but that's an argument for another time)
I think what people who feel that this lifestyle is being pushed down their throats need to realise is that media has been and will always be fairly liberal beyond the prevailing ideas of the population at large. In short, a month dedicated to LGBTQ people isn't reflective of the impact that LGBTQ people have in society. What the media often does is create this illusion that if you are anti LGBTQ you are some type of social pariah, when in fact if you have views that are against what is considered "politically correct", you have many peers. Homosexual Marriage was legalised in Ireland after a free vote where around 60 percent of people voted Yes. Still that's around 40 percent of people who where against the legislation. In Ethnic Minority or Religious communities you often find that dogmatic viewpoints towards alternative sexual preferences are intensified. When you have these videos, I think people easily associate them with the prevailing narrative that exists in the White Western Neoliberal sphere which is considered wholly representative of society so it feels like Ad-Nasuem and counter-culture element within the Internet runs with it. People will have different viewpoints which they keep close to their chest, within other communities it is openly derided. Non Normative people will still frequently come into contact with these people frequently, and if they live in certain communities, it might be much of their entire existence. Try to be an openly gay person in most African Pentecostal Churches in the U.K, a country which is considered quite LGBTQ friendly. Its.....difficult. But if you a Afro Caribbean living in the U.K, where Church can play a very integral part in someones life....can you see the problem they may face. To you, this video- just another virtual signalling piece of rubbish. To them, a reminder that they are not alone. Even if we move away from Religion per-say, we have seen the attitude to Homosexuality in the Black community, within Hip-Hop for example, which is only now starting to be shed (and even that's only partly due to the Genres need to continually innovate to stay relevant).
Also......this thread has also given me an idea for a new thread to unleash on CV >:)))))
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