Trans social media users are responding to the new “sexuality” in educational ways.
Social media has spawned many trends over this past year, including aspirational manifestation culture and playful jokes centered on starter packs. But this last week a new trend emerged which is rooted in transphobia: the so-called “super-straight sexuality.”
The derogatory idea started as a joke, but certain cisgender users began to seriously use the label as a sexual orientation that identifies a cisgender individual who won’t date a trans person. TikTok users have since claimed this sexuality, which was designed specifically to troll LGBTQ+ folks, by both invalidating the gender of a trans person and mocking the LGBTQ+ community.
TikTok creator Kyle Royce first originated the term as a joke, claiming that he can’t be called transphobic for refusing to date a trans woman because his sexuality means he’d rather date what he deems a “real girl.” In the viral video where he first shared the idea, he claimed that his sexuality should be respected, as he is part of the LGBTQ+ community. Royce’s video reached 2 million likes before TikTok took it down and banned his account. A representative of Tik-Tok later told the U.K. LGBTQ+ site PinkNews that “the community guidelines make clear that we do not tolerate hate speech or hateful ideologies.”
Trans activists have responded to the hateful trend by using it as a tool for education. Eden the Doll, a YouTuber and TikToker, responded to Royce’s transphobic content with a series of TikTok videos, describing in length how no trans women are forcing men to be attracted to them. These claims not only show how insecure men are, Eden says, their entire “sexuality” was formed around a trans woman, and a community that has done nothing to them.
Outside of TikTok, trans content creator Sam Collins also addressed the “orientation” on his YouTube channel. “Super straight” was formed around a person’s preferences, Collins states, disqualifying it as a true sexual orientation, which is not a choice.
LGBTQ+ people, and other marginalized groups, fight for a voice and visibility every single day. The “super-straight” is simply an attempt by those who hold transphobic views to make themselves the victim by adapting the language of LGBTQ+ individuals. But trans people have taken this mockery as a chance to point out the highly problematic issues with the new “sexuality,” and create a dialogue for educating people about what it means to be trans and a part of the LGBTQ+ community.
