I used to frown upon people that were too “gay”, too effeminate, too loud, too performative of their sexuality because I thought that those were the things holding us back.
I thought assimilating would lead to acceptance from the cis-het world.
But I soon realised that the LGBTQIAAP+ community was never the issue. It is not us that needs to change.
I realised what I was experiencing was a self-hate drilled into me for as long as I could remember.
I realised that the more I tried to assimilate. The more I remained silent. The more I watched other LGBTQIAAP+ people get ostracised for being themselves - the more empty I was becoming.
It took years of unlearning & rebuilding to get to a point where I could accept myself in spite of others.
Those years could have been better spent building on a foundation of acceptance rather than to begin building that foundation in my adulthood.
And once I started my journey of acceptance in the face of societal rejection I encountered my next great challenge:
Cis-homosexual white people.
Cis-homosexual white people have been one of my biggest issues within the LGBTQIAAP+ community.
They were the first to be accepted by society. The first to be accurately portrayed in mainstream media.
THE EASIEST FOR SOCIETY TO STOMACH.
For all that growth, appreciation & acceptance; cis-homosexual ytpipo turn on LGBTQIAAP+ people of colour and treat us like secondary citizens of our sexulities & genders.
They establish the exact same ideologies of white feminism.
Cis-homosexual ytpipo have continued to push LGBTQIAAP+ people of color into a minority within our minority.
Further perpetuating the rejection thrust upon us by society. Because we can be queer & black but not too much of both.
It is a new kind of pain when you are not accepted within your own minority group. A group that preaches peace & love but still wants to uphold a hierarchy based on race and class. #pridemonth
This #pridemonth has been the most beautiful because I can finally articulate all of this without being tongue tied or defensive.