#be wary of those who want to splinter oppressed minorities and create infighting

[vmures]

Since I'm already thinking about James Somerton, I might add this to my musings on his videos and the take aways from his errors, lies, omissions, and plagiarism.

He's a great example of the problems that arise when you decide to categorize a minority group into good and bad members of the group instead of focusing on individual bad behaviors and just that--individual. He's also a great example of the same type of behavior the 9-1-1 stans I was talking about earlier love to revel in.

He's white, a cis dude, and gay. He acts like he's uplifting minority voices and speaking for more marginalized groups when in reality he was spreading a lot of hate and using voices of those more marginalized than himself to boost his fame and fortune. There's a lot of misogynist language in his videos. There's also a whole lot of "good gays" talk. While he doesn't go the puritanical route for describing good gays (meaning a gay person who fits into heterosexual norms and thus is less likely to upset the far right), he does still paint a picture of there only being one right way to be queer while deriding those who do fit into heterosexual norms.

Claiming the opposing stance (we're good because we're freaks and they're bad because they pass) is just another tactic that divides the community and causes strife and in-fighting which weakens the whole community and makes it easier for outside forces to oppress and harm the community.

Of all the videos that pissed me off, the one where he claims that all the good gays died in the AIDS crisis was probably the one that made me most feral with anger. I was too young to be active in the queer community during the Act Up years. I was only able to become more active in the community when I got to college in the late 90s. But I watched the news and read and tried to come to terms with being queer while living in the rural deep south (and let me tell you, finding supportive info was hell before the internet). I saw the work people were doing to fight for housing, for employment rights, for fair treatment in all walks of life. It was never just about marriage and joining the military. Honestly 20 year old me didn't think we'd ever see gay marriage legalized in all 50 states. So hearing that blatant lie was infuriating. It was a sign that not only did he not do his research, he deliberately created misinformation to try to radicalize members of the community and get them to hate other members of the community.

The other problem with his stance about the only good gays being the visibly wild and weird ones is that it ignores the realities that a lot of LGBTQUIA+ folks face. I tried hard to pass, and failed spectacularly especially in middle school where I was severely bullied for looking like a boy and being to masculine and possibly being gay. I did eventually get better at passing as a protective measure.

When I officially came out in college, my cousin thought I was brave as hell, but kind of insane. Not because it was wrong, but because it literally put my life in danger. My college was a small private liberal arts college but was still located in a very red, very conservative state and city. I ended up helping start the college's first gay-straight alliance group (and as far as I know it's still an active group on campus). People were afraid to come because they didn't want to become targets. We had our flyers torn down and some of us had our cars keyed. Thankfully I don't recall us having any violence to people just a whole lot of microaggressions on campus.

A few years after college, I joined the Peace Corps and was told point blank that the country I would be serving in was very homophobic and it would be best if I stayed closeted while there for my own safety. There are lots of people in many US states who still face the choice of being closeted or being victims of violence and for those who simply cannot pass it is a terrifying world to live in. Instead of dividing it into good and bad camps of who can pass and who cannot, it's a lot more effective if both groups stand together and work for change. We are so much stronger when we join forces and stand in solidarity. Calling out those who are afraid to come out, or who feel like they only way to live safely is to pass, isn't an effective way to create change. Just like alienating those who cannot pass or choose not to is not an effective way to create change.

Neither extreme take is fair to the other group. And these sorts of takes tend to result in a sort of "I got mine, and you can go die" mentality. We shouldn't be leaving any member to the hatred and abuse of oppressors. And for those who join our oppressors in hopes of sparing themselves...well, we should pity them because in the end they will find that once the other scapegoats have been slaughtered they will be the ones on the chopping block.

TLDR; Misinformation and framing things in a way to fracture oppressed minority groups even farther is one of the things we all need to be wary of when we're taking information in. Because in the end it only ends up hurting the entire group.