Turmoil within the LGBTQ+ in the online word in relation to Johnson's "Quare Studies"

[grace_berberoglu]

As someone who has grown up in the age of social media, I have encountered many unique stories, perspectives and dilemmas. I had found myself relating what I had seen online to the words of Johnson. The LGBTQ+ community is so wonderfully diverse. People of all kinds of identities and backgrounds have built themselves a caring community based on shared experiences and livelihoods, but as Johnson and many of the authors have said, this is not entirely true.
In Johnson's "Quare Studies", he perfectly summarizes this point: "Although we share with our white queer peers sexual oppression, gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people of colour also share racial oppression with other members of our community" (Johnson p. 147). I have noticed that there is quite a bit of turmoil within the LGBTQ+ community due to certain "white queer peers". More often than not, there is always an issue of the misuse of AAVE. Certain words have been spearheaded by Black queers, such as "period", "chile", etc, and they are found online all the time. However, the issue with this are the certain white queers that offensively use AAVE. There has been an uprising of specifically white gay men adopting this dialect and also mannerisms that mimic offensive and stereotypical tropes commonly used against Black women. Black members of the LGBTQ+ community and Black women are not typically praised for their way of talking. They are made fun of and seen as "uneducated", which is not the case at all. Rather than being celebrated, they are confronted with hatred and bullying. And yet, when certain white gay men behave the same way, they are seen as hilarious, entertaining and the encapsulation of what it means to be "gay". This double standard demonstrates the disparity between members of the LGBTQ+. Although a certain group may all be “queer”, they are not actually unified, just as Gloria Anzaldua claimed. This one shared aspect about their livelihoods does not trump the fact that there are still obstacles pushing people of colour out from their well deserved pedestal as pioneers for culture.

(Despite this unfortunate issue of the appropriation of AAVE, people have actually taken the chance to show how ridiculous some people sound, especially on Twitter, and I find it quite hilarious. This specific account calls out everyone who misuses AAVE, not just the “white queer peers”- https://x.com/aavenb?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author)