{"version": "1.0", "type": "rich", "title": "can we like\u2026get rid of the so-called leather and rubber \u201cpride flags\u201d ? it\u2019s honestly ridiculous and offensive to the lgbtq...", "author_name": "kontextmaschine", "author_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "provider_name": "kontextmaschine", "provider_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com", "url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/post/694594634768318465/", "html": "

vriskakinnieaynrand:

\n\n

darkshrimpemotions:

\n\n

thunderboltsortofapenny:

budgiesmuggled:

dead-dyke:

aqueensellingdreams:

\n\n

can we like\u2026get rid of the so-called leather and rubber \u201cpride flags\u201d ? it\u2019s honestly ridiculous and offensive to the lgbtq community. those aren\u2019t pride flags.\u00a0

\n\n\n

The leather pride flag is the second oldest pride flag. It has been at almost every single US pride parade and protest in history.

It\u2019s older then you are, it\u2019s older then I am. The leather community is responsible for pride. Leather daddies were the ones chasing away cops when they tried to arrest us for being queer in public back when Pride Parades were illegal in the US. They are still the ones chasing away cops and corporations from smaller pride events and those that aren\u2019t sanctioned by Wells Fargo. The leather community is essential to the queer community and has a long and rich history.

Please fuck off if you\u2019re not going to learn the actual history of pride.

And don\u2019t fucking out your hate in our tags, asshole.

\n

The leather pride flag represents an expression of self which is inherently queer, and a community which has been around for generations. It is not offensive to the LGBT+ community in any way. I have seen cis gay and bisexual men standing shoulder-to-shoulder with trans men, all of them united by their leather community roots. The leather community is more diverse and nuanced than you perhaps know, but that is no reason for you to shit on a community you don\u2019t understand.

Here is a photograph from 1998, displaying the leather pride flag, the bear gay pride flag, and the rainbow flag. This is our history.

Source.

Here is a photograph from 1987: three queer women entering into the Ms. National Leather Association Contest, or simply gathering as spectators.

Source.

A flyer from 1989, rallying the leather community to march in a Stonewall anniversary protest.

Source.

A photograph from 1988: Tony Deblase, the creator of the leather pride flag, and a gay man, embracing a fellow member of the leather community. Over his shoulder is Judy Tallwing McCarthy, a Native American woman who was part of the leather community from 1959. She co-founded the first lesbian BDSM group in Portland, along with her partner, Sashie Hyatt.

Source. Source.

Just because you don\u2019t know the history, doesn\u2019t mean it isn\u2019t there. Be humble, and always assume you have more to learn. Hatred, and outright dismissal of communities you know nothing about, is the most aggressively anti-LGBT thing I can imagine.

The leather community has always included trans people, lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals. The leather community is global and nuanced. The leather community is where many of us encounter our found families, and our lovers. For you to dismiss that is cold-hearted and ignorant. Just because queer sex is involved, doesn\u2019t make the community dirty or bad.

\n\n\n

I\u2019m again fucking begging the baby gays to read/watch/listen to How To Survive A Plague.

Do you have any. Any idea. Any god damn clue. How kink intersects with LGBT and queer community. Queer history. Do you know why the community pushed for, and against, closing the bathhouses during the 80s? Do you know who organized awareness campaigns about HIV, even way back when it was still called GIRD. Do you know who created the safe sex pamphlets, the classes, who pushed for disclosing your health history to partners, who distributed contraceptives and condoms and dental dams at parties and meetings and baths? Do you even know where the safe sex education we have now comes from? Do you know where a bulk of the language about consent came from? Do you have any good god damn idea what the kink communities have done for us, and continue to do for us?

Keep their names out of your mouths because you clearly don\u2019t know what the hell you\u2019re talking about

\n\n\n

If there is one thing I could say to young queer folks, especially young queer folks in the U.S. who are coming of age in a world that is more accepting than the one I knew growing up, it\u2019s this:

Don\u2019t be so quick to sanitize your queerness and make it corporate pride daytime TV-friendly. Don\u2019t be so quick to jump on the purity bandwagon. Don\u2019t be so quick to speak on what your community should look like before you\u2019ve actually learned the history of your community, and always be aware that there are things you probably don\u2019t yet know.

These things will not protect you. They never have. And all you\u2019re doing is isolating yourself from community, from support, from the strength we all have when we stand together in a world that would gladly pick us off one by one.

Queerness isn\u2019t as hidden or embattled now (in some places) as it once was, but make no mistake: when our existence was illegal everywhere the people you have this knee-jerk \u201chide the weirdos\u201d reaction to are the very ones who would\u2019ve had your back against the cops and the gay-bashers.

The people who made me feel safe to come out in my 20s flew the rubber and leather flags alongside the rainbow flag and often the trans flag as well. You don\u2019t get to tell any of them they don\u2019t belong anymore just because you don\u2019t understand.

\n\n

FUCK SUCK & YIFF ON THE WHITE HOUSE LAWN. LEATHER PISS DADDY 4 PREZ. REPLACE AMERICAN FLAG WITH GOATSE 2K22. GG ALLIN REX AMERICAE

\n\n

I will say being a new arrival to the fringes of the queer scene it’s kind of weird and mysterious how some kinks get raised to a Thing We Are All Celebrating Our Identity Through. Like, the thing with all the guys wearing leather dog masks isn’t “ew, sex!”, it’s that they’re all leather dog masks, and like, who decided that pup play was a significant part of MLM life? I didn’t. (In fact cause the attraction-to-men hadn’t been around to be kinked, I’m significantly more vanilla with guys. I want\u2026 to fuck them in the ass? That’s still kinda novelty enough.)

", "thumbnail_url": "https://kontextmaschine.com/media/3db05f4373244977b6e15ee480c322757e5e4135_8219a0e4fd87.jpg", "thumbnail_width": 699, "thumbnail_height": 467}