My discomfort with being "queer"
The label "queer" feels to me like an ill-fitting sock that I'm trying to squeeze over my head. It's ironic really, because I spent years feeling an unexplained affinity for the LGBT community. I wanted to be one of them, felt like I should be one of them, but I was "straight". And an ally. And a good ally doesn't speak over those they're advocating for.
So after keeping a certain emotional distance for more than a decade in fear of being accidentally appropriative, it feels fucking weird to, technically, be queer.
And then there's the fact that as it turns out, I'm a minority (NB) within a minority (trans*) within a minority (LGBTQ+). Queer amongst the queers if you will, except that the queer majority for most part holds the queer label and amongst them, I feel like a sore thumb (and an underdeveloped dwarf, simultaneously).
I wish I knew another NB person, similar enough that we'd see ourselves in each other. One can dream.
So after keeping a certain emotional distance for more than a decade in fear of being accidentally appropriative, it feels fucking weird to, technically, be queer.
And then there's the fact that as it turns out, I'm a minority (NB) within a minority (trans*) within a minority (LGBTQ+). Queer amongst the queers if you will, except that the queer majority for most part holds the queer label and amongst them, I feel like a sore thumb (and an underdeveloped dwarf, simultaneously).
I wish I knew another NB person, similar enough that we'd see ourselves in each other. One can dream.