warning: rant.
Eugh. I've somehow, in my group of LGBT friends, become affiliated with some "Social Justice Warrior" types.
One hundred percent straight, white, and cisgendered, all from affluent backgrounds, and none of them will shut the fuck up about how hard it is for them to "deny traditional gender roles."
Every discussion with one of them becomes a futile sort of "Oppression Olympics," in which I'll have to hear pointless tirades about how (insert the newest label they've used to define themselves) are so goddamn neglected in the world.
I never really cared for labels. If someone asks about my sexuality, I tell them "I date dudes," and that's the end of the conversation. Easy. No indignant rage, no rants, no lists of terms that 99% of the population don't know the meaning of. Why don't I like labeling myself? Labels dehumanize. They encourage stereotyping by clumping an entire social group into one word. Most importantly, labels mean different things to different people. To some fundamentalists, bisexuality may not be considered a 'real' orientation -- they would consider any person with an attraction to the same sex to be a homosexual. To an average person, 'gay' could come with the implication that you have no attraction to the same sex whatsoever. To homosexuals? I've read five-page long definitions of what they think the words mean, complete with corresponding kinsey scale numbers.
When labels are so pointless at an individual level, why do so many social justice warrior types attempt to apply them to themselves? Furthermore, why do they think it's okay to add their fetishes and preferences (furry, polygamy, etc) to the struggle for gay rights? Are they attempting to belittle the LGBT rights movement by tacking their ridiculous problems such as otherkin acceptance onto serious issues like trans acceptance and the legalization of gay marriage?
I guess the most infuriating thing about this phenomena is the attempt to emulate oppression.
If you're a woman who only dates men but considers herself to be a lesbian, the average (tolerant) person would not be offended. If they react at all, it would be to ask you how that's possible.
If that question offends you, congratulations, you're basking in your own manufactured persecution.
And if you're only applying that label to yourself so you can be indignant when it's brought up, you're actively harming the LGBT movement with your pointless bullshit. Considering yourself to be progressive isn't an alternate sexuality, it doesn't make you genderqueer, and it doesn't make you a fucking marginalized class.
Fuck off.