The Coolest Pro-Gay Slogan
I was walking down the street yesterday thinking about what I wanted for dinner, and wondering if the boyfriend would go for a second Thai curry this week, when I saw a London bus bearing the Stonewall slogan “Some people are gay. Get over it!” I knew the campaign had started this last week, that 1000 London buses would be carrying this sign, but it was a startling and rather wonderful moment. I am used to invisibility in public. It’s part of the LGBT experience, after all. When sexuality is present in the ads on the sides of buses it’s usually there for a Rom Com, or it’s a straight couple holding hands – which for the last few months has been mostly Ryan Reynolds and ‘girlfriend’ in Marks & Spencer togs. It’s so ubiquitous that I rarely think twice about it. When I saw the Stonewall ad two worlds collided. I had a reaction that I could not have predicted and did not think I needed: I felt a sense of validation, and a sense of hope.
Of all the slogans that have done the rounds throughout the years, I think this is my favourite. Why? Because it’s what acceptance is about. Some people are gay: it’s a fact, not an issue, it’s part of the way we live now and not a challenge to it. The ads are running as part of Stonewall’s marriage equality drive. There is so much hot air blown by the opposition to equal marriage that the essential truth – that it is about equal rights – is lost under the defence of marriage rhetoric, and the oddball conclusion that the next change on the docket will no doubt allow people to marry their pets. (I wonder what it must it be like to be so irrational that a] you’d think this, and b] you’d be prepared to say it in public.) Of course, there has been a backlash in response to this slogan, which Stonewall has been using since 2007. There is the “Most People Aren’t Gay, Get Over It!” movement, and the questionable, “Most People Hate Gays, Deal With It!”
“Recent deeply offensive comments comparing marriage equality with slavery, child abuse, polygamy and bestiality clearly show that we still face significant opposition,” Stonewall state on their campaign site. If only such commentators would get over it. In the end, we’re all just walking down the street thinking about how to get on with our daily lives.
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[...] been seeing these Pro-gay slogans all over London on our red buses. So simple, so direct. So happy to see them. Here’s to [...]
The slogan, and many other LGBT rights protests have come off wrong to the public. I don’t much like being as forceful as we were in the 1970s. When the gay rights movement started, essentially LGBT people were very unheard of or completely misunderstood & ostracized. It was “us vs. them” because the bigotry was so high.
But now, it seems the playing field has leveled. It’s mostly too complicated these days to really say who has the “upper hand” in this fight between homophobia & LGBT supporters.
Instead of basically lashing out at each other so much, I’d really like people to take a scientific approach. I’ve already found a heavily backed hypothesis that states the Central Nervous System may have been affected in utero for babies that turn out transgender. (As a transman, I suppose this hits home with me).
Simply put, we have to have logic-based EVIDENCE that shows none of this is a “deviant behavior”, but a genetic mutation. Sometimes it amazes me that cis-gender, heterosexual people are so supportive, when they probably don’t understand from a personal perspective.
The slogan was nice, but it clearly only made the bigots post more public displays of their (misled) beliefs too.
I grew up with a mother and sister CONVINCED that the bible is all truth and that I was just a “tomboy”. Believe me, I’ve debated with the devil. So I think you can trust my ideas.
@ Jack W – I don’t want to fight for acceptance on the back of the argument that we’re deformed or mutated. :-/ Enough people believe that we’re damaged and use that belief to justify their twisted actions without making it a campaign strategy. And… It just doesn’t feel good, to think that way. EMPOWERMENT all the way for me. I’m done with being disempowered and dismissed!
@JALINDAL: A mutation in and of itself is not positive or negative, it’s just nature. Essentially, humans could not have evolved into the dominant species on the planet with a number of mutations occurring.
To say certain members of the Queer community are homosexual, bisexal, pansexual, trans, etc. because of a “mutation” should, therefore, not be perceived as negative.
To say members of the Queer community are the way they are because of a “deformality”, however, would be insulting and degrading.
@JACK W: As the author of this article mentioned the slogan made him feel “validated” about his sexuality. Similarly, when I see advertisement or media geared toward the acceptance of LGBTQ community, I feel validated as well. While this advertisement may offend homophobic people and separate them more from “us”, I feel its acceptable if this sense of validation occurs for LGBTQ people. I mean, if someone is homophobic already simply validating the LGBTQ experience and presence will at least help LGBTQ people feel better about their situation.
Further, some people have tried to challenge Pride parades based on the idea it segregates the LGBTQ community more than it integrates it with the larger community. Quite simply put, LGBTQ people did not ask for a distinction between “us” and “them”. That distinction, however, has been made, and unfortunately, we have to remain vigilant and militant on promoting acceptance and tolerance and deterring homophobia. If we don’t, LGBTQ people can be misunderstood like in past.
Of course I know that scientifically there’s no connotations to do with mutation, either positive or negative. Unfortunately the word itself IS undeniably negative in it’s common usage.
Science?! Most bigots base their beliefs on fairy tales and you want us to fight back with science. They can’t even spell the word science. What these bigots understand is brute force.
[...] part of its campaign to support equal marriage rights, Stonewall has been asking people in London to tweet images of buses bearing the slogan “Some [...]