User blog:The Zog./Thoughts on ProudToBe backlash

This doesn't belong on this wiki, but when have we ever stuck to that?

I've accepted that there are certain things in this world that, no matter how hard you try, you can never be rid of. There's always going to be someone that smokes a cigarette, there's always going to be someone that beats their family, there's always going to be someone that's going to kill someone else, and there's always going to be someone that hates the gays. I've accepted this as fact, but damned if you don't at least try to combat them.

In the wake of things like the Pulse shooting, I was crushed. I have LGBT friends, and a rabbi. I hugged them and said "It's going to be okay. Things will change." I'd done this so many times before. I did it when Sandy Hook happened and I did it when the attacks hit Paris and San Bernardino. In the aftermath of so many travesties, you'd expect at some point a little fucking solidarity. This is where #ProudToBe comes in.

Expectedly, I was hit with a shitton of /b/ and bigotry when I clicked on the initial introduction video. I gave it a dislike, because apparently Google doesn't know taking random clips and putting them over a sappy song doesn't make you any less of a corporation.

I clicked on my first independent #ProudToBe video today and I was appalled. The dislikes, the comments, the full on hate.

I'm just sick of it. I don't know how else to say it, I'm sick of it. There's a line, an obvious and very well-defined line that is crossed between comments like "There are only two genders" and "Kill yourself"

I'm not going to pretend that I know what this level of discrimination is like, the most I've ever gotten is being called a "kyke" every now and then. I'm not LGBT, I'm not ashamed of who I am, but I think I can at least attempt to put it into words:

Shameful, that's what I'd use to describe this, shameful. This is an altercation I had with a commenter in one of the videos:



This was the best of the bunch, literally. There were things like "Orlando shooter for president" and "God hates fags".

If you're religious, that's fine, but you can't tell me that it's okay to single out a single phrase in an entire, centuries-worth of phrases just to justify you're bigotry.

Hell, I'm not even safe from this, this whole thing was a YouTube video! I decided not to upload it because I didn't want so many people seeing that I supported this. What does that say about me? I ask you, what??

Bottom line: To anyone out there, I'll tell you what I tell everyone else: You're not alone. It's going to be okay.

Things will change.