There is no RationalWiki without you. We are a small non-profit with no staff—we are hundreds of volunteers who document pseudoscience and crankery around the world every day. We will never allow ads because we must remain independent. We cannot rely on big donors with corresponding big agendas. We are not the largest website around, but we believe we play an important role in defending truth and objectivity. |
Fighting pseudoscience isn't free. We are 100% user-supported! Help and donate $5, $10, $20 or whatever you can today with ![]() ![]() |
Essay talk:My problem with Queer Majority
Without a citation, I take issue with this claim.[edit]
But I also think it has something to do with the average political leanings of the "B" letter when compared to the other letters of the LGBT acronym (and possibly any other letter that could be added to it). Indeed, most polls show that overall, bisexual voting behavior is inbetween straight voting behavior on the one hand and gay/lesbian voting behavior on the other hand. This makes the "B" letter the group that, relatively, is the most sensitive to conservative ideology.
Whatever this research is it requires a direct citation. I am skeptical of this claim and I don’t think the claim should be made without sufficient evidence to support, otherwise it is engaging in what can be described forwarding negative stereotypes about bisexual people. I am bisexual and identify as a socialist, I support gender affirming healthcare and social policies, and I believe in the dismantling of the cisheterosexist capitalistic patriarchy. I am also an ethical evidentialist, which means I do not believe we should adopt any belief in a descriptive statement without sufficient evidence and/or logically valid argumentation with strong warrant to believe is sound.
Maybe I am truly an anomaly, unrepresentative of bisexuals as a demographic, and the average bisexual is dramatically different in politics from I. If that was the case though, I’d suspect that of the bisexuals I meet in my life, they would have politics more frequently to the right of the gays and lesbians I know. This is not affirmed by my lived experience, but maybe for whatever reason I am overwhelming exposed to bisexuals who are more likely to be trans and non-binary, and more likely to have far-left politics. There could be multiple factors to why my experiences would be atypical.
As it stands though there isn’t any evidence presented to why it would be, well other than a vague gesture to “most polls”. Which barely meets the threshold for being even weak evidence, other than a vague appeal to authority akin to making vague resference to “research shows..” without any citations. - Only Sort of Dumb (talk) 19:45, 9 February 2025 (UTC)
- I also think there is something deeply problematic in the implicature that this one media outlet themed on bisexuality is generally representative or suggestive to the political leanings of bisexuality as a whole. As if a number of prominent TERF publications are not strongly associated with the political lesbianism, something you allude to as a possible contributor to bisexuals alleged average aversion to the “far left”. As if monosexism can’t simultaneously be a source for transphobia as it is for biphobia. Especially strange when the presence of transphobia is used as a proxy for “conservative ideology”. - Only Sort of Dumb (talk) 19:55, 9 February 2025 (UTC)
- I admit I have to find back the sources for my claims about bisexual voting behavior. I had data for both the US and France, though not all of them support this view, and some of them were led on samples that are too small to be conclusive. That said, saying that bisexual voting behavior is inbetween gay and straight behaviors means the average bi person is (sometimes much) more progressive than the average straight person.
- So I don't think you're "an anomaly" or "unrepresentative of bisexuals as a demographic" in any way, and please be assured that "forwarding negative stereotypes about bisexual people" was definitely not my intention (there are also bisexual stereotypes of polyamory, hypersexuality or promiscuity, which are pretty much not compatible with conservatism).
- Also, I don't actually think "this one media outlet themed on bisexuality is generally representative or suggestive to the political leanings of bisexuality as a whole" (no doubt, they would like it if it were true and some of their writers may believe it is actually true, but it's not quite the case). In this article, I tried to put forward an explanation for why some bisexual people (especially bisexual cisgender men) may be more conservative than other LGBTQ people and for why this thing exists, but maybe my explanation is too simplistic and there are other factors at play. --Monotremous (talk) 20:58, 9 February 2025 (UTC)
- Okay, that’s understandable. I think it is apparent you have no ill intent. I think you may want to re-words things a bit in your essay to make that more explicit, so as you are not further misconstrued. I should make it clear that I don’t think you’re a bigot or anything, but I think with how things are worded currently you run the risk of triggering defensiveness in bisexual readers, as the linguistic implicature seems to suggest there is something explanatory to the Queer majority’s questionable content that is reflective of bisexuals generally. If you want people not to come away with that interpretation, you may want to rephrase things so as to demonstrate that you are only speaking about the sort of bisexual audience the Queer Majority is attempting to appeal to. I apologize if my initial posts were overly critical in tone. - Only Sort of Dumb (talk) 21:41, 9 February 2025 (UTC)
- Hi, thanks for your response. This essay seems to have attracted attention lately. Recently, Jamie Paul, one of the contributors at Queer Majority, took a similarly poorly-worded passage to somehow imply that I was a "left-wing conspiracy theorist". To be clear, I don't think Queer Majority is directly controlled by right-wing organizations; I think it's just part of a broader cultural shift I've seen especially in Europe.--Monotremous (talk) 08:01, 10 February 2025 (UTC)
- Okay, that’s understandable. I think it is apparent you have no ill intent. I think you may want to re-words things a bit in your essay to make that more explicit, so as you are not further misconstrued. I should make it clear that I don’t think you’re a bigot or anything, but I think with how things are worded currently you run the risk of triggering defensiveness in bisexual readers, as the linguistic implicature seems to suggest there is something explanatory to the Queer majority’s questionable content that is reflective of bisexuals generally. If you want people not to come away with that interpretation, you may want to rephrase things so as to demonstrate that you are only speaking about the sort of bisexual audience the Queer Majority is attempting to appeal to. I apologize if my initial posts were overly critical in tone. - Only Sort of Dumb (talk) 21:41, 9 February 2025 (UTC)
- Also, I don't actually think "this one media outlet themed on bisexuality is generally representative or suggestive to the political leanings of bisexuality as a whole" (no doubt, they would like it if it were true and some of their writers may believe it is actually true, but it's not quite the case). In this article, I tried to put forward an explanation for why some bisexual people (especially bisexual cisgender men) may be more conservative than other LGBTQ people and for why this thing exists, but maybe my explanation is too simplistic and there are other factors at play. --Monotremous (talk) 20:58, 9 February 2025 (UTC)