Straight Privilege

My girlfriend and I are about to embark on a road trip up to Massachusetts this weekend. The last time we embarked on such an event, she was a new Teach for America recruit, and we passed the time driving by reading aloud all the required materials. A lot of the TFA materials talked about "unpacking privilege," generally with regards to race and class. Things like racial privilege being able to see movies featuring stars of your own race and find barbie dolls of your ethnic background and other things like that.

Someone then created a list of things that constituted "straight privilege," which was largely identical, only with a few words changed. The ability to see gay movie stars, etc. We thought that their straight privilege list was incomplete and rather silly, so we filled it in with a few instances from our own experience.

Straight privilege is being able to hold hands and otherwise show affection in public without worrying about what other people think.

Straight privilege is being able to kiss your partner at home in front of the windows without first pulling closed the blinds.

It is being able to kiss goodbye at the airport when you know you won't see each other for months.

It is going to a hotel and not having to clarify that you want a double bed.

It is having no question whatsoever about your rights to marry, adopt, or share benefits.

And here I was intending this to be a lighthearted entry...

...because at the time we were creating this list we were actually laughing about it all. Because there's something slightly ridiculous about "unpacking your straight privilege" when driving with your girlfriend from Northampton to Provincetown, the two gayest cities in the US. The two places where, for once, the privilege actually turns the other way.