A rather unsavory group of people has recently begun to occupy tumblr, and they're creating a rift in the LGBT+ community with their exclusionary attitude.
Arguing that asexual and/or aromantic individuals do not belong in the LGBT+ community unless otherwise gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, they've proudly named themselves "aphobes." I was fairly certain that the LGBT+ community had previously determined that being "-phobic" towards a group of people is more or less code for "I'm an asshole," but it seems they didn't quite get the memo.
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A peculiar characteristic of tumblr aphobes is that the group can't seem to decide exactly who they want to keep out of the LGBT+ community. I have seen some aphobes claim that only people who are both asexual and aromantic have a place in the community, but I've also seen others exclude them as well. I've seen people claim that the acronym is actually just LGBT, without the plus. The only thing they seem to completely agree on is that they must keep The Cishets out of the community at all costs, and that aphobia doesn't actually exist because asexual and aromantic people have not been historically discriminated against.
A quick search for a history of witch hunts (the "witches" being, unsurprisingly, unmarried women) and the fact that "confirmed bachelors" were considered a threat to society after a certain age says otherwise, but you know, whatever.
Another feature of aphobic tumblr is their uncanny knack to recycle old arguments — particularly those previously used by biphobes and Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs). In their usage of the term "SGA," or "Same Gender Attraction," to describe LGB people, they effectively split the bisexual identity into "the gay bit" and "the straight bit," which unfortunately is not an outlandish assumption due to past arguments that bisexuals in het relationships should not attend Pride events at at all. Not to mention, of course, that SGA requires a strict gender binary; after all, how can you be attracted to people of your own gender if you don't have one?
The usage of "SGA" is also problematic due to its origins in Mormon conversion therapy, but that's a fish to fry for another time.
Perhaps the most interesting facet of the aphobe community is its tendency to underhandedly discredit whoever they believe threatens their beliefs. It's a popular political tactic — you don't have to be credible, you just have to be more credible than your opponent.
But how does one discredit a perceived threat?
Easy.
Call them a Nazi.
Tumblr user periegesisvoid recently sparked controversy among aphobic tumblr (read: is being verbally attacked online) with their creation of an outline of a bird-like figure, which they created as a symbol of solidarity with the aro/ace community. It's a dove, a traditionally peaceful symbol, and is also a representation of the Holy Spirit in Judeo-Christian art. Their design comes placed in front of various pride flags, sometimes appears with the words "queer unity" below it, and occasionally is adorned with the trans symbol in its center.
Here it is, in its original form:
Pereigesisvoid states that their symbol was traced directly off of a picture of a dove on Google Images. And what do you know? Typing "dove" into the search bar and scrolling just a little bit yields this:
Which looks, unsurprisingly, almost exactly the same, minus the obvious stylistic difference, which they have explained here.
According to aphobic tumblr, this dove is eerily reminiscent of the Imperial Eagle. Which makes perfect sense, because doves are a symbol of peace and eagles are a symbol of war. Who wouldn't make that connection? Because actual Nazi imagery has no place on an article like this, there will be no Third Reich Imperial Eagle provided for comparison, but for the curious, you can check out the Wikipedia article here.
Periegesisvoid makes it abundantly clear that it's only aphobes who seem to have a problem with it — and while few Jewish people have indeed expressed discomfort at the supposed similarity, they are generally, if not always, also aphobic.
Considering that aphobic tumblr has a history of unwanted and unwarranted oversimplification of categories (like insisting that the pansexual identity is included in the B of the acronym on the basis that bi- means "two or more," or that nonbinary people are all trans despite a large number of pan and/or trans individuals not wanting to identify under those umbrella terms), I suppose it makes sense that they'd consider basically any bird with its wings outstretched to be reminiscent of the Reichsadler. But strangely enough, there are a number of other birds I assumed aphobic tumblr would have focused its efforts on by now that have gone unnoticed.
For example:
The Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Prussia.
Harley Davidson is also obviously run by Nazis. (To be fair, this is the closest depiction of an eagle I've seen to the actual Nazi eagle. But I haven't yet seen any tumblr aphobes target the company, so something tells me they're not as critical of bird symbolism as they like to pretend they are).
And, of course, who could forget this blatant imitation of the Third Reich Imperial Eagle?
Not to mention these:
Pokémon GO confirmed antisemitic.
It's almost like birds with outstretched wings can have different meanings attached to them depending on context. Because dove outlines, especially with pride flags behind them like these:
Don't exactly scream "Nazi" to me.
