China’s LGBTQ+ community can decide for their own what they need in order to become accepted in society. There is no need for Western people to think their way is the best way.

They sure as shit don’t need western, liberal, pinkwashed pride. Hell, western queers don’t need that shit either.

Now, those radical aspects of western queerness that were openly communist and stood in solidarity in global south national liberation movements? I think we can all agree that queer movements all need that radical solidarity.

I’m torn between “All assimilationists can go to hell” and “This isn’t really my wheelhouse so that’s fine, the means of gaining a foothold aren’t gonna necessarily look the same in two different places that need to approach the issue in very different ways”

Part of the reason I like pride as a breakaway culture is that it functions as a sort of dual power - Lets me find community and partake in institutions that very pointedly aren’t beholden to heavily conservative, often very christian American cultural norms. At the best of times, hanging around these circles is a glimpse of what my life would be like if I wasn’t subject to the local cultural hegemons.

the idea that someone might genuinely not be irreparably disgusted with their own country’s culture, and in fact might actively want to participate in it or even identify with it, is admittedly borderline eldritch to me.

Isn’t “they want love and acceptance” just a softer phrasing of “we’re here; we’re queer; get used to it.”

If acceptance is the norm, you probably don’t need to draw attention to your cause and need for acceptance quite as much. There is no Straight Pride parade in part because they aren’t trying to make the world acknowledge and accept them.

OTOH, there’s still a case for over-the-top parties and bacchanalia, but perhaps as tolerance becomes the norm, this becomes less a political and social statement and more along the kines of Pagan-style fertility festivals instead.