Let’s imagine something together, just for a second. It’s a gorgeous early summer Sunday, and you’ve decided to treat yourself to an iced latte instead of fumbling with your not-very-good drip setup at home. You walk into your local coffee shop and tell the cute barista with a patchwork sleeve you’d like an iced latte, please. They peer over their wire-rimmed glasses, look you up and down, noting the Sappho hat and stickers on your emotional support water bottle, and ask what kind of milk you want. “Oat, almond, soy…?” They wait expectantly, until you whisper the one word they never saw coming: “Dairy.”
That’s every Sunday for me, and frankly, I’m over it (my wallet is over the weekly iced latte habit also, but that’s besides the point). I’m here to declare that I’m a whole milk gay, and I’m not ashamed.
I want to make it clear that I’m not an alt milk hater! I know that alt milks have quite literally changed the game for people with milk allergies or lactose sensitivities, or for people who choose not to consume dairy. In fact, I’m glad alt milks exist. I just don’t understand how, seemingly overnight, they became queer, and my beloved dairy milk was relegated to the sidelines, forced to become a milk of yore.
I turned to TikTok in the hopes of getting an explanation, but in lieu of one, I only got further evidence of the queer community in Big Oat’s pockets: (1) the knowledge that the (supposedly) gayest drink is a lavender oat milk iced latte, and (2) the following video, which did make me cackle.
@sapphosaveme no oat, no allyship😭🌈 #pride #coffee #barista #latte #oatmilk #gay #lgbt #queer #wlw #viral #funny #baristalife #foryou #food #queer #fyp #sad #lol
I’ve tried my best to like alternative milks! I really have. I’ve had what I’m told are the creme de la creme: the Chobanis, the Oatlys, the Califias of the world. I’ve even tried to make my own oat milk, by blending oats and maple syrup and water, and feeding the resulting mixture through cheesecloth. Honestly, it was a lot of work, and the resulting milk tasted kind of like a goopy, thick oatmeal.
But you know what? I’m done pretending. It’s time to embrace what I’ve always known to be true. I’m a whole milk gay. It’s time to stop looking furtively around before taking some cow-made tradmilk off the shelf at the co-op. It’s time to stop inventing vague yogurt-making plans when people ask about the gallon-sized jug of milk in the fridge. It’s time to openly admit that yes, I will be having an adult-sized glass of milk with my tiny shot of espresso, and that yes, I will be needing to use your bathroom in about ten minutes (I am unfortunately lactose sensitive).
I’m not apologetic about my (personal) dislike for alt milks. They have their place for people with lactose sensitivities and allergies, as you said, but that place is very much not my mouth. I tried almond milk once because I love almonds, and it was one of the most vile things I have ever ingested. So I, too, am a dairy milk gay.
#NotInMyMouth. Many other things, yes. But not that.
Lol same
I am so seen rn. I’ve tried them all and it’s just like, I am so happy other people can partake but i just cannot. Oat milk got the closest but it just made me go: why, when i could just have oatmeal. This is journalism
i truly drink a glass of dairy milk every day and everyone thinks i’m crazy!
I’m so glad someone finally said something. I’ve been edging towards going back to being a whole milk gay myself, hell, I grew up as one without knowing it. I have a lactose allergy but I actually find almond and oat milk to be way more inflammatory and upsetting than milk (in coffee anyway). I’m so glad to see some visibility out here on the streets (and in the coffee shops :)
It’s a bit funny to me that a very feminist website is fine with the torture and exploitation of these animals. Dairy cows are raped and inseminated, get their calf torn from them, every year, until they are too old and then they end their miserable life on your plates.
It is the worst kind of industry.
And don’t give me the “not all of them” stuff.
One of them is too many. And it is the overwhelming majority of them.
Also. It is terrible for the environment, if you don’t care about animals but care about the planet. Climate change is a feminist ans social issue.
Yes, I agree. There is a dichotomy between this article and the other issues they write about. That and their obsession with tinned fish.
I’ll save this for later; it’s useful. contact us
Another round of classic lesbian stereotypes. When my wife and I lived in Brighton-the queer capital of the UK – in the mid 2000s everyone assumed we were vegetarian / vegan. We told them that as New Zealanders our citizenship would be revoked if we didn’t eat lots of beef, mutton and all dairy products!
Oh and how great that is…
Seriously, we are proud of this? I don’t know, I certainly wouldn’t be.
But I suppose burying all of your heads in the sand is easier than facing the atrocity of this evil, soulless industry.
All the dairy products…. We are the only animals who have milk products after having been weaned. We don’t need it. Ergo, it is pure greed and cruelty to continue consuming these products. Ignorance can only be claimed so often in this age of information.
What if… We promoted kindness and compassion for everyone, not just for humans? The outcry about the Palestinian strife is justified – why wouldn’t this one be?
PS because you need all you beef and mutton and dairy, millions of humans go hungry. But sure. Let’s be proud.