I have puzzled over this term for a while. When I was growing up I lived in a relatively homogeneous and genteel middle class environment. But even in this homogeneous environment there were gibes and barbs and insults and slights — one needed to have at least a bit of a thick skin to make it through.
So when this rainbow of self-defined sexual identities shows up and demands that all around them treat them as “normal” I wonder what is going on.
In this context, “normal” seems to mean not only to not object to behavior that has traditionally been thought of as odd (at least, objectionable and even illegal often) but to embrace it. These folks are not demanding just civility from us, not just acceptance, but recognition and love.
I have a personal example of why this is not a simple ask.
I was out to dinner in a midwestern city on Halloween when the restaurant was suddenly filled with people in costumes collecting money for their cause. I turned out the the cause was LBGT… “rights,” or at least help for members of that community (those communities?). They were in costumes from which one could generally deduce their orientation but were not particularly offensive or outrageous.
I was actually to the point of reaching into my wallet (against the wishes of my wife) to find a small donation when one of the revelers decided to put his head right next to mine, away from the direction that I was looking. When I turned to see what what going on on my right side I found a large face in what was definitely my personal space with the largest tongue that I had ever seen hanging out over my shoulder.
I don’t give a shit how oppressed you think you are this is beyond a microaggression. I still occasionally think of this incident and wonder (against my will but apparently consistent with that of the owner of the tongue) what it was about that tongue that he was so proud of. I wish I could get rid of this Ddsgusting and offensive image.
This from the “gotta love me” crowd, complaining about how oppressed they are by every slight, real and imagined.
The View from Peter's Way 