The open-minded myth

I was just reading how S. E. Hinton was recently blasted online for daring to suggest that she neither conceived of nor wrote her characters as gay. The "open-minded" liberal community strikes again. Anyone who doesn't agree with their conclusions will feel their wrath.

One reason for this is that the LGBT community was oppressed for "being who they are" for so long that they are determined to never return there. And I get that. The acts of violence committed against those who see and express their sexuality in non-traditional ways have been unconscionable. They are going to see anyone who disagrees with their experience of and conclusions about their sexuality as enabling or even an extension of that violence.

But perhaps there is also this element: when we insist on something that we want to be true, we tend to be militantly defensive about it. Unfortunately, the only answer that satisfies us is for everyone to affirm us.