I agree that hetero relationships get quite a lot of visibility, but it gets little positivity, which some people are quite sensitive to, especially among teenagers. Also, it enforces LGBTQ+ and cishets as two opposing sides, which they are not.
Faced with (undoubtedly important) messages about how queer folks and their relationships are awesome and worthy of appraisal and attention, some of the hetero teens and even adults feel left out, like they’re not “cool” for just being the default.
Obviously, they are no less cool than anyone else, and their relationships are no less beautiful. And we need to talk about that too, in no way to silence the rest, but to underscore that truly any relation to gender and sexuality is equally valuable. The very pushback on LGBTQ+ is partly fueled by the resentment for this lack of hetero positivity, and we need to remove any ground for it.
LGBTQ+ and cishets are not on the opposite sides, they are all parts of the same spectrum, and so any confrontations between the two are as odd as bisexuals attacking homosexuals. To translate this idea, we should include cishets into the same positivity movement, while remembering the groups inside LGBTQ+ are still unjustly discriminated against.
I agree that hetero relationships get quite a lot of visibility, but it gets little positivity, which some people are quite sensitive to, especially among teenagers. Also, it enforces LGBTQ+ and cishets as two opposing sides, which they are not.
Faced with (undoubtedly important) messages about how queer folks and their relationships are awesome and worthy of appraisal and attention, some of the hetero teens and even adults feel left out, like they’re not “cool” for just being the default.
Obviously, they are no less cool than anyone else, and their relationships are no less beautiful. And we need to talk about that too, in no way to silence the rest, but to underscore that truly any relation to gender and sexuality is equally valuable. The very pushback on LGBTQ+ is partly fueled by the resentment for this lack of hetero positivity, and we need to remove any ground for it.
LGBTQ+ and cishets are not on the opposite sides, they are all parts of the same spectrum, and so any confrontations between the two are as odd as bisexuals attacking homosexuals. To translate this idea, we should include cishets into the same positivity movement, while remembering the groups inside LGBTQ+ are still unjustly discriminated against.