what they don't understand is that being gay in a homophobic world is, in and of itself, a traumatic experience. no matter how accepting your family is or how progressive your friends/city/country are. we still live in a world that constantly reminds us that we are other. that we are perverse, abnormal, shameful. that we can only ever be tolerated and never normalised. so when they tell us that the time for pride parades is passed, that homophobia was eradicated with marriage equality, that there is no reason for us to be so vocal about our gayness, they simply do not understand. you should be happy, you have the same rights as us. why are you complaining? things are so much worse in other countries. stop making being gay your entire personality, you're the reason people can't relate to you. what you don't get is that i didn't choose to make being gay the most prominent part of my identity, you did. you did, when you only put gay characters on screen so they could suffer and have stories centered around coming out. you did, when you made gay an insult, when you told me i was going to hell, when you prayed for me. you did, when you made lesbians acceptable only in porn meant to be watched by men. you did, when you were so afraid of saying the word gay you asked me if i was... you know... . you did, when you told my little sister's friend she was too young to know she was gay, or to even consider the possibility, because you automatically assumed being gay meant having sex. you did, when you made every romance available in movies, books, and reality media between a cis man and a cis woman. you did that, and you made my relationship to the world the warped, one-sided affair that it is.
i did not choose for my gayness to influence every aspect of my life, but it does. even if you "accept it". even if everyone around me is gay-friendly. that doesn't change the messages i'm constantly being fed by the rest of the world. that doesn't change my otherness.