My Book of Queer

Why "Super Straight" is hurtful

A lot of you may be familiar with the new "sexuality" going around called Super Straight. If you haven't already heard of it, I'll give you a quick explanation. 

Super Straight is a sexuality invented by, you guessed it, a straight person. Now, of course we can recognize that these trolls are separate from good straight people, but these particular people are giving heterosexuals a bad rep. The entire Super Straight trend was started on Tik Tok. The simple definition of Super Straight is a person who doesn't want to date trans people. The majority of these Super Straight people are men who don't want to date trans women. Besides the grossly uncreative name, I'm going to explain everything wrong with this movement.

Not wanting to date a trans person isn't inherently transphobic, it's the way you reject them.  If you get approached by a trans person asking you to date them, and you don't want to, fine. Just politely decline them like any other person. They won't find it transphobic at all. Maybe you don't want to date a trans person because they haven't had bottom surgery yet. Maybe they don't pass well enough for you, and you don't find them attractive. Maybe you just don't like them. That's not transphobic. What's transphobic is saying that trans women aren't real women. Or that trans men are just confused little girls. Transphobia is making an entire sexuality specifically excluding trans people from your preference. The people saying they aren't transphobic because they aren't scared of trans people are wrong. The definition of transphobia, copied and pasted from Google is, "dislike of or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people." So these thirty year old men, or eleven year old boys on the internet saying they're "Super Straight" are being transphobic. 

What's the difference between a sexuality or a preference? The definition of sexuality is: "a person's identity in relation to the gender or genders to which they are typically attracted; sexual orientation." The definition of a preference is: "a greater liking for one alternative over another or others." These were both defined from Google. So, a sexuality is an attraction to a gender or genders. A romantic preference is when somebody prefers a specific attribute about the group of people they like. For example, if you like feminine girls, guys, or pals, you're attracted to femininity. The problem is, these people clearly don't understand the difference between preference and sexuality. If someone is attracted to men with beards they won't create an entire sexuality called "beardosexual." The Super Straights confuse preference with romantic and sexual orientation. A preference is single description about a person they like. Trans is an adjective. Like short woman, black woman, skinny woman, trans woman. It's an adjective used to describe someone. Yet, when these SS men create an entire sexuality saying "they aren't attracted to trans women," they're implying that trans women are a completely different gender. See the problem? Making a sexuality is defining the gender(s) you're attracted to. So if you make a sexuality saying you don't like transgender people romantically, you're basically saying they are different gender from cisgender people. Even if that wasn't your intention.   

Let's talk more about sexuality. When you define someone's sexuality, you describe it as who they are interested in. Like, a gay person likes people of their same gender. A straight person likes people of their opposite gender. A pansexual person likes all genders. However, I see the sexuality super straight mostly get defined as people they DON'T like. They DON'T find trans people alluring. They say "I'm not attracted to trans people." That definition is explaining the absence of people they don't like. Not the inclusion of people they do like. Sure, I've heard these humans say that they're attracted to cisgender people, but remember. I've mentioned that's implying that cis people and trans people are separate genders. 

Some of the Super Straight people claim this entire movement is a joke. Maybe it is. But is sure isn't a funny one. So even if the entire sexuality creation was intended to be satire, there are people who identify as super straight who definitely don't believe that. Yes, there are legitimately people who really, really identify as Super Straight. Horrifying, I agree. So yes, maybe the invention of this new sexuality was created as a joke. But the effect it had on the trans community is serious. 

I discovered that the colors of the Super Straight flag, orange and black, happen to be the colors of P*rn Hub. Do they expect us to take them seriously? Also, the colors of the SS flag share the same colors as the gay dating website for men called Grindr. Do they have something they want to tell us? Let's not excuse the fact that the words "super straight" are totally something we would've said in the closet? Like "I'm Super Straight" sounds like something a fourteen year old boy would say when asked about his close male friend. I'm not sorry.