I thought of an analogy while in the shower

cishet allies are like soccer moms

soccer moms are great, they can get the team places and have resources the team doesn’t have, and when team members are down they can cheer them on and help patch up any injuries later

but in the end, they’re not actually playing soccer, and a good amount most likely don’t know how to actually play soccer

you don’t give trophies or medals or whatever to soccer moms, and the soccer moms are not in the team photos, and that doesn’t mean they’re unacknowledged or unappreciated, it is because they’re literally not on the team

and when you say the “A” in lgbtqa stands for Allies, that’s sort of like taking those kids who are never allowed to play, kicking them off the team, and replacing them with the soccer moms

like damn, they don’t have much representation in the field but don’t take their spots