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Sunday, April 15, 2018

Question LGBTIQqAa+ Authority Too

"Question Authority" Timothy Leary, possibly after Socrates. Wikipedia says "It is intended to encourage people to avoid fallacious appeals to authority"

The popular media seems to like finding people who they then claim are somehow spokespeople for the groups that they identify as being part of.


Among other things I'm a computer programmer, occasional commentator on internet accessibility and governance, AMAB(1) woman and a stand-up comedian AND I make no claims to speak for anyone but myself on these issues. Unfortunately there's a risk that should I become well enough known I might be mistaken for one. God forbid! (Intended ironically as I'm an agnostic).

It's the same for the existing cohort of popular LGBTIQqAa+ people. One of my on-stage jokes is about how "LGBTIQA+ is supposed to be this wonderful rainbow community. We're not, we're a dozen(2) different groups who each look at the others and say 'Thank God I'm not one of them!'" Yes, it's hyperbole but there is an underlying truth that members of each group should be promoting their group's best interest(3). When we can benefit by working together that's great, when it doesn't make sense for us to do so then we shouldn't but we should always be respectful of the others.

Unfortunately in a world where popular media outlets want controversy and conflict this doesn't seem to work. They love building up the profile of people with contentious views and unless we can be reasonably confident that the well known public figure will nearly always have their best interest aligned with ours it's best not to invest too much of our emotional capital in them. Just accept that sometimes we agree, sometimes we don't and sometimes our positions are mutually unintelligible.


Notes: 1 Assigned Male at Birth
2 As its uncertain which groups should be combined or split, exactly how many groups there are in the rainbow eludes me. Empirical testing has revealed that this number gets the best laugh.
3 Or even their own best interest which is usually facilitated through the best interests of their group.

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