katsgf:

The reason a lot of LGBT people cite similar issues as things “specific” to their experiences is that many manifestations of marginalization are universal to all of us. I mean, that’s the point. We’re a coalition because we face homophobia and transphobia. Because we’re oppressed by the heterosexualized gender binary. And that means, like it or not, that there are overwhelming similarities between our oppressions. Of course there are differences and also issues specific to us! But I notice that different people will claim a monopoly on x or y marginalization that other people will also claim they experience. And this discourse over who experiences what and who doesn’t get to claim they experience that is tiresome and also cruel. You shouldn’t be negating that someone else has experienced something, or claiming a monopoly on a harrowing experience, and you also shouldn’t lose sight of the reason this coalition exists. It’s not a bad thing to acknowledge that many of the problems we face have similar names or causes. Obviously we cannot pretend that everything is the same for all of us, but take a step back and hazard a guess as to why we all end up saying that we’re the “true” targets of intracommunity or structural issues. 

Fetishization. Intimate partner violence. Homelessness. Poverty. Employment and housing discrimination. Familial and parental abuse. Conversion therapy. Pathologization. Medical abuse. Isolation. Bullying. Suicidality and mental illness. Pressure to engage in destructive sexual dynamics. Loneliness. A feeling of having nowhere to belong. Substance abuse. Desexualization. Rape and sexual assault. Physical assault. Hate crimes. Criminalization. Medical epidemics. Political, legal, medical, sexual, economic, domestic violence. 

Every single LGBT sub-group, no matter how you deconstruct the acronym itself (lesbians, gay men, bisexual men, bisexual women, bisexuals overall, lesbians/gay men, trans people, trans women, trans men, nonbinary people, trans & nonbinary people, gbpq men, lbpq women, LBT women, GBT men) faces these issues. Every single sub-group faces intracommunity tension and hurt. There are similar and different factors that cause the specific problems against us (lesbians are fetishized differently than gay men, for instance, and by different people, for different reasons, to different degrees, with different consequences), but the primary result is the same: an infliction of heteropatriarchal violence against us. 

The faster you understand exactly why this coalition exists, and what forms the basis of it, the easier it will be to navigate intracommunity issues.