#LoveWins and a Warning About Victory

Image found at https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2015/06/26/white-house-lit-rainbow-colors-after-gay-marriage-ruling/YoPuTWIBwv2QHMrI4yxwKK/story.html

Gay marriage is real, it’s even LEGAL! Yaaaay! *throws multi-colored confetti in the air*

There’s something I want to say, as a warning, to all those celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision…

Please, please avoid the temptation to entice fights by throwing around generalized “We WON assholes” type posts on social media. Unless you’re just looking for a fight, which goes against both #LoveWins and your constant calls for equality.

See, there’s this thing about human beings: homosexual, pansexual, straight, white, colored, or polka-dotted, where we search for retribution after the fact, meaning, even after we’ve won a competition, we want to drill the victory into our opponents head (or arms, or eyes, or hands, or or or). That’s why gaming has such a thing as teabagging, which if you don’t know, is where a player’s avatar squats up and down over a fallen enemies head. It’s gross, unnecessary, and rampant. Much like some victory posts I’m seeing about legalized marriage for all.

Now, I am NOT saying don’t celebrate. I’m not even saying don’t scream it from the rooftops. You’ve earned the right to be legally recognized and that is a big deal. But these inflammatory messages I’m seeing already on social media suggest that suddenly, many members of the LGBT don’t care about equality, they care only about themselves and their feelings.

If you feel the need to attack somebody, there are plenty of anti-LGBT bigots left in the world. I am only asking that you target the individual bigots, rather than lumping or even insinuating that an entire group deserves to be offended. And if you feel the need to rub everybody’s nose in your brand new awesome shit, maybe that message of love you were preaching about a week ago doesn’t mean near as much now that you’ve won. What does that say about the entire movement?

Victory is sweet, but it can quickly become pungent. Don’t be that person that turns something sweet into something terrible and sour. I’d like to feel that I’m still welcome as an ally. Thanks in advance.