Jack Antonoff, guitarist for fun and lead singer of Steel Train, wrote a very insightful op-ed article for Huffington Post titled “Straight Allies: The Importance and the Realities.” You can read the whole thing here, and several excerpts from the article are below.
Personally, this is something I encounter constantly in the music industry. Being a heterosexual male in a band comes with a certain misogynistic stereotype that, in effect, leads people to assume that they can safely use offensive terminology that perhaps they wouldn’t in front of, say, a teacher. This leads me to another vital role of any ally: recognizing the specific power we each have based on who we are and what we do.
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As straight Americans we have two choices: we can choose to sit back and enjoy our rights as we have them, or we can realize that it is actually not freedom at all when our friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues do not share these basic rights.
What do you think of what Jack had to say?
