Every queer person expresses their identity differently — but according to a viral hot take circulating on social media, there are right and wrong ways to be queer.
On the social media series Subway Takes, host Kareem Rahma asked New Yorker Leila Louhaichy for their hottest take. That’s when Louhaichy sounded off on queer folks who, according to them, aren’t living fully in their queerness.
“My take is that a lot of queer people lead hetero lives by not unpacking their homophobia,” they explained. “They refuse to de-stigmatize, decolonize their brain. It’s like, people can be queer in identity but still remain culturally straight.”
When Rahma asked what it means to be “culturally straight,” Louhaichy replied, “Refusing to dig any deeper because that ownership of the label ‘queer,’ it’s assumed that it absolves you from kind of just doing any further work.”
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“I’m looking at gentrifier bisexuals specifically,” Louhaichy added. What, you may ask, is a gentrifier bisexual? “Gentrifiers who are bisexuals,” they continued, “not digging deeper into their internalized homophobia.”
It’s unclear if Louhaichy meant gentrification in the traditional sense (ie transplants driving diverse, low-income folks out of their own neighborhoods) or in a metaphorical way (ie people claiming queer identities without engaging with queer struggles or politics), but regardless, they clearly take issue with queer folks that blend in with the straight world.
Responses to Louhaichy’s take are mixed, to say the least. Some folks agreed with them, saying that queerness is just as linked to politics and lifestyle as it is with gender and sexuality. On TikTok, the comments section was largely in agreement: “Queer & POC struggles and class solidarity are all so intertwined!!!” wrote one user.
“So true. Unpacking these things made me realize that my queerness predates and is often more substantial [than] my non hetero sexuality,” agreed another.
“‘Queer’ is an ideology or cultural movement that is specifically re-interpreting how we perceive ourselves, others, and culture,” pointed out a third. “‘Queer’ [is] not just an interchangeable term with LGBT.”
But others thought Louhaichy was spewing buzzwords without considering their real implications, and that their singling out of bisexual people was a case of biphobia. Folks also pointed out that host Rahma is a straight man, so laughing with him at queer people’s expense left a bad taste in peoples’ mouths. “Queerness doesn’t absolve racism etc but to deny someone’s queerness based on their participation in oppression presents a falsely utopian political idea of Queer,” wrote one user on X (formerly Twitter).
like yeah…queerness doesn’t absolve racism etc but to deny someone’s queerness based on their participation in oppression presents a falsely utopian political idea of Queer and obfuscates the exclusionary history of the construction of queer…. pleaseeee read more!!!!
— josef k hole (@poeticdweller) October 30, 2024
"Gentrifier bisexual" is crazy. bi people don't owe you faggotry
— John dutch (@jiggIypoof) October 30, 2024
Kiki-ing like this with a straight man ABOUT QUEER PEOPLE is worse than anything she’s accusing other people of doing
— Sergio Carrallo News and Updates (@legofsantaanna) October 31, 2024
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