I'm here from linkspam, and I'd really like to agree and thank you for making this point. I've been about two seconds away from making a really melodramatic "world, I guess you're right and I'll start calling myself straight because obviously my own self-identification is meaningless" type of post. At the same time, I worry that I'm exhibiting privilege in that I'm able to pass and so demanding that spaces welcome me even though I don't "need" a space to be safe.

I think I wouldn't be so angry about this if LGBT spaces didn't indicate that I was welcome (it's right there in the acronym!) and then freeze me out when I actually try to enter them. As a result, I've started to think a lot about the ways in which identifying as gay or lesbian and being accepted into those spaces is more about accepting certain cultural values rather than simple self-identification of sexual orientation.