A Lot of Queer People Are Leading Hetero Lives
Summary
A straphanger brings a provocative take: a lot of queer people are leading hetero lives. She calls them "quiet queers" who refuse to decolonize their brains and do the deeper work required after coming out. The conversation zeros in on what she dubs "gentrifier bisexuals," people who claim the label but don't dig into their internalized homophobia, staying culturally straight even if their identity says otherwise. It's about ownership without effort. Kareem agrees enthusiastically, landing on the simple truth: do the work, people.
Full Transcript
So what's your take? A lot of queer people lead hetero lives by not unpacking their homophobia—secret homos, if you will. Exactly. Oh no, quiet queers, quiet queers. These quiet queers live in straight lives. They refuse to destigmatize, decolonize their brain. It's like people can be queer in identity but still remain culturally straight.
What is culturally straight? Refusing to dig any deeper because that like ownership of the label queer—it's assumed that it like absolves you from kind of just doing any further work.
Mm-hmm. And there's this constant process of re-education that's necessary to kind of do diligence. Like, once you realize you are queer—well, I'm looking at gentrifier bisexuals specifically. Gentrifier bisexuals? What are those? Gentrifiers who are bisexuals not digging deeper into their internalized homophobia. This is fascinating.
Yeah, I agree though. Amazing. What am I going to do, disagree? Do the work, people. Do the work.