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>It is funny to note that “Punk is Dead” came out in 1977, but all the action in the article WRT punk is happening in the 90’s and beyond

Well, the 90s "punk" revival was just diggist up the corpse of 1976 punk and taking to the bank. Even dead, if that's possible.

And in line, as you note, with the author's own comments about re-purposing and re-hashing culture in a tamer and more commercial way.

>Anyway, I’m not sure who the “blue hair & pronouns” (as the author puts it) crowd is. If it is actually queer and trans people, I don’t think their motivation was ever to be counter-culture really: they are just intrinsically attracted to or identifying with the opposite gender, and would like to be mistreated less frequently for it.

It is the millions of "I'm not like the other girls" boys and girls knee-deep in whatever this era's mass produced youth culture (and "counter-culture") is. They kind of peopl who in 1990 would be into Vanilla Ice and in 1992 into Gangsta Rap. Actual LGBTQ people are a tiny percentage of those groups (though many more just claim to be non-binary or some such, they way hipsters claimed to love vinyl and fair trade).

By blue hair and pronouns crowd, they're referring to the "gay as an aesthetic" types. You don't need to be gay to be queer anymore, it's simply a performative fashion trend to be sold to teenagers at the mall. That's the entire point of the essay.

Is it possible your affinity to the blue hair and pronouns subculture prevents you from seriously considering the author's analysis of it?

To a gay man or transvestite (as they often called themselves, nothing derogatory meant by it) of yore, surely that movement represented freedom from repression. Today, when bigotry towards homosexuals is socially taboo, what does it mean to the allies, warriors and fluid genders? To the stereotypical tumblrites creating new gender symbols and ever increasingly colorful flags in Photoshop? To me it looks exactly like what the author says: mainstream, corporate captured product marketing, in group signalling, an aesthetic subculture feigning angst and struggle.

Bigotry against homosexuals is not taboo where I live.

but it is in many, many places where you don't live.

    To me it looks exactly like what the author says: mainstream, 
    corporate captured product marketing, in group signalling, an 
    aesthetic subculture...

i'm well into middle age now, and i have always thought this about "subculture/counterculture" groups in general -- how are you even rebelling when you all look the same? you're conforming, just to the norms of a smaller group.

however, you're missing (at least!) a few major pillars of what's happening with the LGBT+ community.

1. for those who have (and still do) have to spend much of their lives hiding their true identities, just getting to express themselves openly and with pride is a joy. something that's hard to imagine if you've never had to hide.

2. being gay/trans/etc is a pretty material and fundamental part of one's identity. it's orders of magnitude different from "liking grunge music in 1993" or whatever.

3. it is not necessarily acceptable, or even safe, to be LGBT+ in many places or around many people. in that sense these shared and "stereotypical" aesthetics serve actual functional purposes - they allow LGBT folks to identify others who are not likely to negatively judge or persecute them.

    ...feigning angst and struggle

they're feigning? who are you to decide that?

It's not a decision I made, it's just my observation. I could be wrong but of course I don't think so.

I'm not commenting on the politics of sexuality in Nigeria, I'm talking about western societies. I've been around a lot of gay people and transgender individuals, and never have I once seen them in danger in public. Now, I wasn't around in the 80s or 90s, with the gay bashing and what not, and I understand the plight. But they've won as far as I can tell, at least in our society, they've achieved their goals. Coca Cola loves them, they're represented in the executive branch of the US government. And to speak of the recent rise of the fluidgender non binary other gender crowd, I fail to see how that's anything other than subculture signaling.

    I fail to see

Well, yeah.