PSA: Straight people shouldn’t go to Revenge

Are large groups of straight people welcome in Revenge? A question that's often posed and discussed at length with little headway being made in coming up with a categorical answer.

Nevertheless Sussex students, being the notoriously opinionated lot we are are, have taken the topic on in a recent post by everyone's guilty pleasure: SussFessions.

Staying on brand with the page's reputation, and that of Sussex students, the post categorically comes down hard on large heterosexual groups going out to gay clubs.

Oh SussFessions, always causing a stir…

It's pretty easy to understand where feelings of unease come into play with this topic. The LGBT community is famously subject to a case of 'pseudo-equality' where many straight people are quick to pat themselves on the back wearing their 'ally' status proudly on their sleeve. That is until homophobia/ transphobia rears its head and they have the opportunity to step up and help. Yet they don't.

Now I don't mean to paint with a broad brush here, thats unfortunately just the way such issues go with many marginalised communities: people are just not as active in their support as they like to think they are when faced with these things in person.

LGBT spaces are the kind of place the community goes for the exact purpose of not having to worry about these things. They are spaces designed to be a haven where queer people can safely socialise and hit on one another, a place where everyone is open and accepting of you exactly as you are.

Large groups of straight cisgendered people coming into these spaces, through no active fault of their own past simply being there, can rightly make people feel less safe.

It's a tricky topic to really weigh up, even as I type this it feels a little wrong to simply argue 'LGBT+ places for LGBT+ people only'. Allies are rightly welcomed to queer places: it's so important in the fight for true equality.

Yet at the same time when a minority group is left feeling marginalised in the one place designed for them to feel like the majority, maybe just take a step back and ask yourself if your group of predominantly straight friends could spend the night elsewhere.