This article was first published in print magazine Perceptions. It appeared in Volume 23, issue 8.
I was sitting in the Positive Space room with some LGBTA friends and allies at university today when someone came and read sections from an article they were reading about porn.
Caught your interest, eh? It grabbed the attention of most of the room. Porn! Porn, porn, porn, porn, porn! Come on, who doesn’t like porn?
Wrong. This article was written by a gay twenty-something talking about how much he loved porn. No problem there, right? He talked about how he loved guy-on-guy action, even two girls getting it on, but then went on for paragraphs on how straight porn disgusted him, even going so far as to talk about how seeing a guy and a girl holding hands or kissing in public made him want to vomit. To clarify, he made it perfectly clear how fine he was with queer couples committing PDAs — public displays of affection.
What really made me uncomfortable was that this article was written as a humourous one. Not one of parody, commenting on the wrong attitude that some straight people have towards gay couples, but one written in such a way that the writer expected the reader to laugh and say, “that’s so true!” It made me sick. Thankfully, the discussion in the room made it quite clear that my friends felt the same way.
We tried to play devil’s advocate, but really could not find a way to justify this thought. It was initially very distressing to be hearing this viewpoint in the Positive Space room. If you’re unfamiliar, a Positive Space room is a place where ANYONE can enter and relax and enjoy each other’s company, knowing they will not be persecuted or find discrimination in any shape. It’s a space where everyone is equal, free, and can celebrate that. You don’t need to identify as queer, straight, an ally, or anything; you’re just you, and that’s good enough. Of course, it’s an initiative perfect for the LGBTA community and their allies and is essentially a bigger-scale gay/straight alliance at my campus. But it’s also much more than that.
Once the initial impact of this writer’s heterophobia wore off, I realised the Positive Space room was the perfect place to discuss an issue like this. While we instantly saw that this writer was horribly unfunny and completely heterophobic, we also realised his stance wasn’t as uncommon as we’d like to think. Some queer people may only have an, “eww, cooties!” kind of position on straight porn, but there will certainly be those like this particular writer, who treat heterosexual couplings with the same distaste those nutbags have towards queers when they hold up their “God hates fags” signs. Upon further investigation, we saw that this writer attacked homophobic attitudes only one month earlier in an article condemning gay hate crimes like that against Matthew Shepard.
What is the difference? Does this writer really think that queer people, as a minority, have the right to attack straight people and their relationships simply because they outnumber us? That because they are not the minority, those who are have the freedom to attack them, in humour or otherwise? Or is it simply because they don’t have the same sexual experiences that we do? If we continue along either line, we’re just as bad as those who oppress us, who deny us the right to marry and for equal rights simply because they can differentiate us queers from “normal” human beings.
What we all need to see is that, deep down, there is no difference between you, me, or John and Jane down the block with their 2.3 children and fancy picket fencing. We are all humans on this planet, with the desire to love, live, and be happy. The sooner we realise that — the sooner we have an entire world of Positive Space — the sooner this world will be one of equality and a place I’m happy to live within.
About the Positive Space room and Safe Spaces
The University of Saskatchewan Student Union’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Ally Centre (LGBTA) has unveiled a Safe Spaces campaign for the Saskatoon campus. The campaign was instituted in partnership with Discrimination and Harassment Prevention Services at the U of S.
Often, queer people remain closeted in their work or study lives on campus because they fear negative reactions to their sexual or gender orientation, says Nicole White, the LGBTA co-ordinator. This campaign will help focus attention on those safe spaces that do exist on campus.
“The Positive Space campaign is a university-wide initiative to reduce the impact of homophobia and heterosexism on campus,” White said. “The aim of the campaign is to create a resource network and to identify LGBT2 positive people and spaces.”
People interested in participating in the campaign can obtain Safe Spaces stickers to place on their office door or workspace. Faculty and staff who wish to participate in the program receive a training program session that outlines the goals of the program.
The campaign has received many positive responses, with the College of Education signing on immediately as well as the Departments of Education Foundations and Philosophy and the students’ union at St. Thomas Moore.
However, some people have expressed concern about how comfortable a religious student would be accessing services where a Safe Spaces sticker is displayed, while others have wondered how knowledgeable they need to be about queer issues. White says neither issue should get in the way of providing a safe and inclusive environment for queer people on the campus.
