A conservative said we should “thank straight people” during Pride and people have spicy thoughts

Tr*mp fan and co-founder of the conservative dating app The Right Stuff John McEntee is in hot water after making some truly idiotic comments during Pride month. On a video posted to the dating app’s TikTok account, McEntee sarcastically wished the queer community a happy Pride while eating an overflowing Chipotle burrito bowl (you just know he was giving employees the evil eye.) Not content to leave it at that, of course, he ends the greeting by telling queer people to “thank a straight person” for our existence.

Apparently, it’s time for Biology 101…again.

First off, let’s just state the obvious: gay people can have children. Surprise! Secondly—and it’s ridiculous that this even needs to be said—straight people have us to thank for quite a few modern conveniences, such as computers, synth scores, literature, and the outcome of World War II!

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Trans TikToker and musician Violet Stanza had more than a few things to say in response to McEntee’s rage-baiting video. Citing groundbreaking scientists Alan Turing—creator of his own programming language and also a critical code-breaker in the UK during WWII—and trans IBM innovator Lynn Conway, Stanza explains that straight people have queer folks to thank for more than a few important 20th century developments.

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“You can also thank queer people for gas heating systems, thanks to Alice H. Parker,” Stanza explains, citing the Black queer inventor responsible for creating and filing a patent for what would become the conventional heating furnace system in homes across America. Stanza goes on to reference queer luminaries and inventors like queer mathematician Gladys West, whose early mapping work gave us the ability to implement GPS technology, and trans doctor Alan L. Hart, who was instrumental in popularizing the use of X-ray technology for patients with breaks, fractures and sprains.

The list, of course, goes on: gay engineer Robert Moog, with help from trans engineer Wendy Carlos, gave us the synthesizer, George Washington Carver gave us modern agricultural science, and gay economist John Maynard Keynes gave us influential theories on macroeconomics that are still in use today. And that’s not even getting into the arts, people! Leonardo Da Vinci, James Baldwin, Gertrude Stein, Ma Rainey, Oscar Wilde, Josephine Baker, Chappell Roan, Kehlani…the list goes on and on and on.

Basically, we know that when straight people tell us to “thank them” during Pride Month, they’re looking to raise a ruckus. But we know better. There’s so much to be proud of in our history, and Stanza’s fantastic post only scratches the surface. So maybe the co-founder of a right-wing dating app funded by Peter Thiel can, I don’t know, go kick rocks or something? Pride month is our month, and it always will be.

You’re welcome, straight people!

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