LGBTQ Comedian Kristen Becker Reacts to Orlando Tragedy
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Kristen Becker is a powerful LGBTQ comedian hailing out of New England. She’s opinionated, strong, and of course funny, and a contributing writer for The Interrobang. The creator, fearless leader, and host of Dykes of Hazard, Becker has opened for national comedy acts like Doug Stanhope, Josh Blue (winner of Last Comic Standing), and singer/songwriter Ani DiFranco, and has become one of queer comedy’s most popular comedians. She has been featured in Pride events across the US and Canada. She wrote this post in the hours following the tragic mass shooting at a Gay nightclub in Orlando. It was originally posted on her Facebook page, and reprinted with permission herein.
To understand the impact of the shootings in Orlando, you must understand what gay bars really mean. Especially in conservative areas. To live and work as a member of the LGBTQ population in a conservative area means to not hold hands in public. It means to learn how to alter your pronouns on Monday morning so you don’t accidentally out yourself at the water cooler and lose your job. It means renting a two bedroom apartment, even if you only need one.
Day in and day out, you spend countless hours of energy containing yourself. Keeping who you are hidden, until you get to a safe space. Nine times out of ten, that safe space is a bar. Often those bars have really vague names and minimum signage. Better safe than sorry. No need to draw attention. United States lawmakers have spent the last year spending our tax dollars in an attempt to push anti-LGBTQ legislation through their respective state governments. In some instances, this takes the form of bills proposing that anyone who identifies as LGBTQ should have no right to a safe place to live without fear of eviction.
One after another, laws aimed to de-humanize the LGBTQ community were brought forth under the guise of “religious freedom.” There will be many right wing Christians who will jump to the front and say “ The shooter was Muslim!” Sure, the guy who pulled the trigger might have identified as Muslim, but Christian rhetoric killed 50+ people today. Orlando is one of the more Republican areas in Florida. Not the most Republican, mind you, but it’s not South Beach.
The fruit of the last two years of Conservative vitriol lays on an Orlando dance floor this morning, covered in innocent blood.
This week, the LGBTQ community will rally around itself. We excel at taking care of one another. We are accustomed to making our own way. Take for example gay men faced the AIDS epidemic with many a lesbian by their side, nursing them when no one else would. We have holidays with our chosen families after our blood relatives disown us. We pass through life sharing secret side glances with strangers, looking out for each other when we can.
You have no idea how fucking tough we are. We are wildly adaptable, yet have spent decades waiting for the rest of the population to understand that sexuality is but one teeny tiny part of our genetic makeup. We have tried desperately to show patience and compassion to those who beat us and rape us and kill us.
We know your game. We have always known. Your game is to tell us we are shit until we believe it. In recent years, you have turned your hatred toward our youth. Targeting developing children was easier for you, they have impulses and hormonal shifts. Our children are killing themselves because of you.
You use religion to stoke hatred. You use hatred to ignite smoldering fear. You have systemically oppressed people because oppressed people are easier to control. We have turned the other cheek, time and time again.
That stops now.
June 12, 2016 will go down as the day we stopped taking your shit. You tell us to keep our lives private and then you come to our private place and kill us? Muslim beliefs, Christian beliefs, Atheist non-beliefs—whatever justification you give for your homophobia can kindly go fuck itself.
Not sure how to tell your kid why those two men are holding hands? Not our fucking problem. Don’t like that Target dares to allow us to relieve our bladder and/or bowels in peace? Suck it up, Bubba, it’s time you learned to deal with life. Two women in love, showing affection for one another and now you have to have a weird moment of silence with your mother-in-law?
Tough.
Shit.
We have spent decades attempting to let you neanderthals evolve, but you are taking too long and we are losing too much. I’m sure this will be hard for you to hear, but our existence doesn’t need to be sanctioned by you.
Who is the “you” I speak of?
You know who you are.
So do we.
Latest posts by Kristen Becker (see all)
- White Guys Find a Way: Late Night Patriarchy Seen Disrupting Female Helmed Show. Subtle Oppression or NBD? (Op-Ed) - October 31, 2019
- Is Big Comedy Money Hurting the Comedy ‘Middle’ Class? And Should We Care? - January 19, 2017
- The Attack on Steve Martin Proves We All Need to Scale Back the Judgement - December 30, 2016
