{"id":8491,"date":"2021-10-20T22:55:22","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T22:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1370582"},"modified":"2021-10-20T22:55:22","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T22:55:22","slug":"social-medias-queer-tax-is-exhausting-unfair-and-unavoidable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=8491","title":{"rendered":"Social media\u2019s \u2018queer tax\u2019 is exhausting, unfair, and unavoidable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A colleague recently sought my advice on covering a queer-related tech topic and I\u2019m not ashamed to admit I advised them against it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m queer. I made the decision to come out in my professional life after a lot of consideration and long discussions with my family.<\/p>\n

In the time since, I\u2019ve learned that millions of people who\u2019ve never met me hate me. They despise me for existing. They think I should go away, shut up, and stop being who I am. I offend them.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not something I experienced before I came out.<\/p>\n

And if you ask me those people are too sensitive. Don\u2019t worry about my queerness. Think of it like a joke. <\/i><\/p>\n

When I got up today, I was excited to write about this incredible press release from the American Institute of Physics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Researchers believe they\u2019ve managed to quantify all of the information in the known universe. It\u2019s potentially groundbreaking.<\/p>\n

I would absolutely love to spend the next 800-1200 words telling you about the potential implications for this research. But I\u2019m tired\u2026 I\u2019m exhausted. It\u2019s barely lunch and I feel like I\u2019ve been through the ringer.<\/p>\n

A certain streaming company is currently involved in a kerfuffle around a popular entertainer and an employee protest. I\u2019m not here to talk about that.<\/p>\n

But I can\u2019t avoid it! It\u2019s on every news aggregator. It\u2019s all over the most popular internet forums. My entire social media feed is full of commentary on queerness right now and it all sucks.<\/p>\n

And, for the record, I spent a decade in the military during the longest war in US history and I talk a lot of trash about big tech on the internet \u2014 I\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019m not sensitive.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not personally bothered by what a comedian says about queer people. What bothers me is knowing that trans women in 2021 are among the most at-risk groups in US history<\/i>. They\u2019re killed at a higher rate than any other identity group \u2014 with 350 known<\/em> murders in just 2020 alone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What bothers me is that I\u2019m a US citizen who fought in a war only to come home to a country where it\u2019s legal for businesses in several states to fire me for thinking dudes can be hot.<\/p>\n

Thank you for your service, but I disagree with your lifestyle. <\/i><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to deal with any of that. But I\u2019m forced to. I have to reckon with the fact that I\u2019m incredibly privileged. My employer won\u2019t fire me for this article. I\u2019m one of the few queer people with a platform and, because of that, I have a responsibility.<\/p>\n

But, damn it, I wanted to write about something I love today. I wanted to share my exuberance for physics and this amazing universe we all call home.<\/p>\n

Yet here we are. Netflix and millions of \u201ccomedy fans\u201d are out militantly defending their right to hold the existence of queer people in contempt.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s unavoidable. I can\u2019t just keep my head down and do my job. I can either hide my existence or be a target. It\u2019s the closet or the grinder.<\/p>\n

They comment on my work when it has nothing to do with queer issues. I get emails and DMs condemning me for queer ideas I\u2019ve never espoused. They don\u2019t care what I have to say. I\u2019m just another member of the \u201cAlphabet People\u201d with a rainbow flag and a check mark on Twitter.<\/p>\n

Every single time I publish anything related to queer issues in STEM, I\u2019m exposed to hate. I know that I\u2019ll get emails and comments filled with hate speech the moment I publish this. And trust me when I tell you there\u2019s a difference between hate mail<\/em> and mail that contains hate speech<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I get paid the same whether I fight this fight or avoid it. I know what it means to make these choices.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m not even a queer journalist or a queer activist. I\u2019m just a regular tech journo who happens to be queer. The people staging walkouts, leading activist groups, or even just writing for queer-centric media outlets are on the frontlines taking the brunt of the nastiness and bigotry. They\u2019re immersed in it.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s just so many bigots in STEM that nary a day goes by where I don\u2019t catch some secondary hate.<\/p>\n

Days like today it\u2019s nearly impossible to do my job without compartmentalizing. One moment I\u2019m researching quantum physics and the next I\u2019m reading a physicist\u2019s commentary insinuating that being queer is a choice (and a very poor one) and that people like me are a distraction.<\/p>\n

Some days you show up for work and millions of people are pissed off that you exist; that you have the audacity to think differently than them. And nobody gives you an extra break or compensates you.<\/p>\n

And, when they attack me, I\u2019m just supposed to prove them all wrong by doing my best work, by outclassing them. By being better than them.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m supposed to work twice as hard as them under circumstances that would make most of them crumble.<\/p>\n

Under these conditions, it\u2019s easy to see why queer people are underrepresented in STEM and why so many choose to remain closeted. Why so many quit and leave the fields they trained for.<\/p>\n

Luckily there\u2019s a simple solution. Pay us for that work. Compensate us for the extra taxes we endure just by existing. Recognize that queer people wade through a river of bullshit just to get through the door every single day.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s time for big tech to put its money where its mouth is. Because next June you can be assured that Netflix and similar outfits that struggle with diversity issues will be sporting rainbow logos and releasing self-congratulatory diversity reports.<\/p>\n

Thanks but no thanks. I can\u2019t speak for anyone else, but I believe most of us would rather get a pay raise or a promotion than be subjected to another round of fake, performative allyship from a company willing to both-sides issues of bigotry and hate.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A colleague recently sought my advice on covering a queer-related tech topic and I\u2019m not ashamed to admit I advised them against it. I\u2019m queer. I made the decision to come out…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8491"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}