Small Revolutions

I realized recently while talking to two other queer Vocal creators that I don't spend enough time in queer spaces, I feel deeply passionate about LGBTQ+ community, they are my people. Gay folks are the people that most understand me, it just is what it is. Neurodivergent people also get me, the overlap between the two is stunning.

So for my first contribution to the Pride community renewal, Oneg, Jim and I are working on, I will be talking about my relationship with the queer community, through history, taking accountability, and opening myself to be forward with my queer identity.

See excellent post by Oneg here:

See, I never wanted it to be a big deal, Pride events have, historically been overwhelming to me. I've been to pride twice, once in college and once after the Pulse nightclub shooting. I think I'm in a place where my queerness has been relatively comfortable. I lived in a time before gay marriage was legalized, however my friends and family support me and have always supported me. Now it's different, now it feels like my identity is being demonized and weaponized, and it's time for me to stop being comfortable.

My ideal world would be that identity does not matter, but that is not the case so we can make our little drops in the bucket to change it.

Pride to me means intersectionality, it means learning from queer elders. One of my most rewarding experiences in my life is sitting down with a queer elder and hearing about his life. Paul changed my life. One of my wake up calls to people outside of my version of the queer community was watching Paris is Burning, which I am sure is a core memory for a good portion of the queer community.

On Vocal we (and by we in this article I am including myself in it) need to post our queer stories and poems to the Pride community, we need to bulk up the community so we can make a tight knit group of queer authors. That can then lift each other up with critique and connection. Onegs article has the numbers, but Pride is woefully underused. We're going to need each other going forward. Even if it means a little less interaction (though join the Facebook group and you might be surprised), post your queer stories to Pride. Vocal has changed the word count so poetry and short stories can be posted in Pride now. I'd like to personally thank Vocal for that.

It is a time where our identities are politicized, boiled down to sexual preference, considered controversial, which means we have to come back stronger than before. It shouldn't be our responsibility to to fight for the right to just exist, but it is.

The good thing is that can look like so many different things, that can be writing a story where someone has they/them pronouns without it being a thing. It can be calling your congressperson about legislation. It can be just being your authentic self and recognizing that exposure and education mean acceptance.

So please join our Facebook page, LGBTQ+ folks only, at the moment we are not accepting allies, that will be changed eventually. We are trying our hardest to make this the safest place for queer authors, and we have bigger plans that will not be revealed yet.

So I'm joining Oneg's call to post to Pride! Write your gay stories and your queer stories and your non binary stories and your asexual stories. Write your gay poems and prose. Be more gay :)

The good thing about the queer community is we bounce back. Always.

The other good thing about the queer community is we throw bricks when provoked.