"The LGBT movement has nothing to do with me being gay. I'm not interested in marriage for all," says influencer Martin Hranáč

Martin Hranáč is a very interesting figure in the influencer scene, who regularly manages to stir up sparking emotions on social media. One of his special abilities, apart from his endless extravagance, is his ability to lift virtually anyone out of their chair with his distinctive vision of society. From the "ordinary" heterosexual citizen to the most orthodox member of the LGBTQ+ community, which he does not claim to be. And in this conversation, once again, it was no different.

The very first question from the moderator pointed out sarcastically the very fact that he has been very "popular" in this community lately. How does Martin see this fact?

"The LGBT movement has nothing to do with me being gay. I don't like at all that we should divide ourselves into some LGBT people and straight people. I find it terribly stupid. I used to go to different clubs, I enjoyed it, and for a time I lived fully in the gay community, but I found out that it's not right, because you close yourself off into some false world. When you only see gay people all the time, and you only live with gay people, and you think everything is gay and queer, you stop living in reality. I'm much better off with straight people. Most people in the LGBT community say it's necessary because they are oppressed, but I personally don't feel oppressed as a gay person in the Czech Republic. I just don't feel it. I may be a dick and somewhere else entirely, but when I go to a country disco I don't feel oppressed or have any insinuations that I'm a faggot. It's all about what kind of person you are, not what your orientation is."

That's a strong statement right off the bat, but it has to be said that Martin is definitely not the only gay or queer person who sees it that way. Is the queer community today so radical, or at least its media-visible members, that some may see it as too much of a "push" that hurts more than it helps? And what does Martin think of marriage for all?

"I don't care, I don't care at all. I just need to be sure that if something happens to my partner, I might inherit some money, but it's certainly not a priority for me to call it marriage, to make heterosexuals feel that we are taking something away from them. ... I'm not a gay activist and I'm certainly not going to do anything about it."

And what does he say is the difference between a "normal" gay man and a gay activist? "To me, the difference between a smart gay and a stupid gay," he sums up succinctly.

The presenter was also interested in his opinion on a kind of transformation of the presentation of gays over the last few decades, when in the 1980s and early 1990s the prototype of a gay man was, according to him, "a classic muscular biker with a moustache" wrapped in leather. In his view, this has morphed from a kind of toxic masculinity to more of a "toxic femininity." This was followed by Martin's explanatory window on the different categories of gay - bear, twink, vers and others, as well as a fairly useful education on PrEP use. But what about the transition?

"It's still the same, it's just all more visible these days. If you take all the bands from the 80s, they were all gay at their core. But back then, it wasn't talked about like that. You could tell they didn't know they were gay."

The presenter further confronted him with his statement that he would like to be the voice of the normal, ordinary gay community because the public media space gives the impression that all gays are united and that they all go to Pride. How does he feel about rainbow marches and the media in general?

"The media does this on purpose. They take supporters of the LGBT community and opponents of it, so then they create conflict in those debates, which they need for ratings. For example, I don't get invited to these debates. I enjoy being gay so much, being one of the first to say it at a time when it wasn't talked about so much. I feel really bad for all the straight people and people who have to be careful what they say because they'll always be labeled as homophobic. What kind of society are we? A lot of gay people think that what I say is just to please straight people. Why would I do that? What for? I just want to show that there are ordinary people in our gay community who understand how things really are. I think there's so much going on that even people who didn't have a problem with it before are starting to say, 'Oh my God, what now?' We're just men and women. ... If you feel like 'it' then think that, but don't buy it for me."

But Martin said it's not that he's looking to attack the entire community.

"I know there are people in the LGBT community who have really fought for those rights, for the fact that we can have registered partnerships and so on, for example Jiří Hromada. If it was up to people like me, we don't even have that partnership today."

And finally, how does he see the behaviour of Czechs towards gays? In his opinion, are we tolerant or homophobic? What is the atmosphere like in our country?

"I once hosted a prom and one of the musicians told me during the event that if this was performing at their hunting ball, he would shoot him with a shotgun. (Laughs) But at the end he admitted that it wasn't that bad. Look, I personally have a good life here, I don't have any problem."

So it wasn't a very specific answer, but from the context of the whole conversation, we can conclude that from Martin's point of view it wasn't that bad. It has to be said, though, that this is not an easy question to answer, because to say anything like that about the whole company is treading on pretty significantly thin ice. If we took any 100 people, whether from the LGBT community or anyone in the crowd on the street, the answer would be entirely individual to that person's experience.

How to summarize this conversation? In short, Martin will once again make a lot of supporters and detractors in this case, nothing he is certainly not used to. But that is the fate of those who state their opinions bluntly and directly. Whatever they are. On the other hand, it's important to say that, although it may seem like it, Martin is certainly not the voice of the majority of gay or queer people, and as he said, certainly not of the entire community. He simply speaks for those individuals who have grown tired of all the constant addressing of sexual orientation, gender and other LGBT issues. For whatever reasons. Let's respect that, let's be aware of it, but that doesn't mean we should slack off in any way in our current activities. In the end, it's all about presenting our actions with clarity and humility. Which some could certainly learn to do.