Since the 60s, LGBTQIA+ rights have been on the rise, and now folks from the extreme left to even the right say they support them. But many times, a rainbow flag filter on your profile picture hides an inability to think about your own privilege and prejudices.
The LGBTQIA+ comunity is one of the most discriminated against in the world, with hate crime statistics making the rounds. But what you don’t see in the numbers is the daily suffering: the offensive jokes, the hurtful comments that go over people’s heads, the suspecting stares. With the ease of expressing how “virtuous” and “progressive” you are to others without doing anything more than putting a filter on a picture, the real problems which we are all a part of — even inside the community — are set aside to give space for the oh-so-brave “allies”.
It doesn’t matter that you never called someone a fa**** or a tra*** — we tend to be subconsciously ingrained with the prejudices of the society we live in. But, even then, we can better ourselves in these things — recognizing our own privileges and prejudices, and how we use them to discriminate.
Learning from your mistakes takes effort — much more than saying your prayers go out to those who are affected and putting on that nice rainbow flag in your profile picture. But if we take the easy route, we will be putting the lives of millions of LGBTQIA+ people who suffer from depression, anxiety and other mental health problems at risk because of prejudice and discrimination, be it conscious or not.