30 Days of Pride Tag

I have been almost completely absent from my blog this month, with the exception of a few posts earlier in the month about E3, and have been particularly disconnected from anything pride related. I loved Wendy‘s answers for this 30 Days of Pride tag and thought that I would bring you some non-book related tag info for change

Rules

• Credit the original author of the tag — Ace Of Bens
• Make sure you copy and paste these rules and notes at the beginning of the tag.
• Tag as many or as few people as you’d like!

Notes

• This tag originally uses the word “queer” as an umbrella term for the LGBTQ+ community, but you are free to change it to whatever term or abbreviation you are most comfortable with for your own post.
• You don’t have to be out to be proud of who you are. Therefore, you can still do this tag if you aren’t out to everyone you know, as long as you feel comfortable and safe doing it!
• Don’t feel obligated to answer all of these questions or to even do this if you are tagged. I want this to be a fun pride month post, not a source of anxiety for anyone.
• Happy Pride Month!

BLACK & BROWN: PEOPLE OF COLOUR — WHO IS YOUR FAVOURITE QUEER CELEBRITY/CREATOR OF COLOUR?

A 1924 photo of blues singer Bessie Smith. (AP Photo)

There are so many amazing queer celebrity/creators of colour to choose from. For my answer I want to take it back a little bit to queer women of colour in history like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. One of my fellow panelists on the History’s Hidden Heroes panel at Nine Worlds gave a great talk about them and it made my heart so happy as older, more historical figures can get forgotten about when we celebrate pride.

 

LAVENDER: DIVERSITY — NAME A PIECE OF MEDIA (MOVIE, TV SHOW, BOOK, PODCAST, ETC.) WITH QUEER REPRESENTATION THAT YOU ADMIRE FOR ITS OVERALL DIVERSITY.

There’s no way that I can give any answer for this other than the Xandri Corelel series by Kaia Sønderby, especially Failure to Communicate (#1) and Tone of Voice (#2). The series’ protagonist is an autistic queer woman who has on page romantic attraction to both male and female characters. There is also lots of other on page rep for characters of colour, gender identities and pronouns, romantic/sexual attraction, and relationship formations.

 

PINK: SEX — WHAT ARE YOUR SEXUAL AND ROMANTIC ORIENTATIONS AND GENDER IDENTITY? (IF YOU’RE COMFORTABLE SHARING!)

I gave up attempting to label my sexual, romantic and gender identity many years ago because it felt like I was constantly having to “come out” to people as something different every few months and I felt like labels were constraining to sexual, romantic and gender fluidity, so I ended up just sticking with “queer” as a catch-all. Gender-wise I identify as trans masculine/genderqueer.

 

RED: LIFE — WHAT POINT OF YOUR LIFE WERE YOU AT WHEN YOU FIRST LEARNED ABOUT THE QUEER COMMUNITY? WHAT POINT WERE YOU AT WHEN YOU REALISED YOU WERE A PART OF IT?

I was lucky enough to stumble upon the queer community at a young age (16) when I made a call to the Lesbian and Gay Switchboard. I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that that one call changed my life as they recommended I join the “Queer Youth Network” which introduced me to my first ever IRL queers and my first ever trans people. As soon as I attended my first youth group, I knew I had found my people.

 

ORANGE: HEALING — COMMUNITY IS A HUGE PART OF HEALING. HOW HAS THIS COMMUNITY HELPED YOU BECOME MORE COMFORTABLE IN YOUR OWN SKIN?

I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of many different queer communities both on and offline which have really helped to shape and support me into the person I am today. It was those communities that encouraged me to experiment with my gender and sexual attraction to others, put me in touch with the necessary services for transition, and provided me with a community in most of the places that I go (academia, conventions, etc).

 

YELLOW: SUNLIGHT — WHAT IS SOMETHING ABOUT THE QUEER COMMUNITY AND/OR CULTURE THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY? SOMETHING YOU FIND JOY OR LIGHT IN.

I love being around and being able to give back to other queer people, especially when I’m able to watch people become more confident in themselves. Although things are by no means perfect and we have a long, long way to go, it warms my heart to see how much more acceptable it is to be queer in a lot of places even compared to just 5-6 years ago.

 

GREEN: NATURE — HOW HAVE YOU GROWN SINCE LAST PRIDE MONTH?

I don’t think I’ve really grown much in terms of my identity, but I know I have made monumental progress in terms of my confidence and social anxiety. Me and my partner were discussing this last week when I was filling him in on all of the social interactions I had been having (presenting a paper at a conference, hanging out with other postgraduates, speaking to new people at work training) and remarking that I didn’t feel nervous about any of it. Just a year ago, I could barely even hold a conversation with someone I’d just met and now I’m able to do so with ease!

 

TURQUOISE: MAGIC/ART — WHEN YOU FOUND A LABEL THAT FIT OR REALIZED YOU WERE QUEER IN SOME WAY, WAS YOUR MOMENT OF REALIZATION A MAGICAL FEELING OF RELIEF?

I wish I could say that it was but it has never felt like that for me. At first, it was terrifying because I didn’t want to be different and I have faced a lot (and continue to face) a lot of adversity because of my queerness. I don’t think I have ever felt “relief” over my queerness, but I have definitely felt comfortable.

 

INDIGO: SERENITY — WOULD YOU SAY YOU’RE AT A POINT OF SELF-DISCOVERY THAT YOU’VE FOUND INNER PEACE WITH YOUR GENDER AND SEXUAL IDENTITIES?

Again, I would say I’m at a point where I am more comfortable but I’m very skeptical over this idea of “inner peace” and “feelings of relief” when I still face so much adversity for my identity, especially my gender identity, and the world still isn’t ready to quite accept trans people or treat them with respect. Maybe I’ll find “inner peace” one day when I no longer have to fear other people’s reactions towards me.

 

VIOLET: SPIRIT — HOW ARE YOU GETTING INTO THE SPIRIT OF PRIDE MONTH?

This year I don’t have any Pride spirit at all. I haven’t posted anything about pride, I haven’t done anything for pride, and I’ve barely even *thought* about pride. But I feel like that’s okay because I’m at a point in my life where it doesn’t seem like such a big thing for me anymore and I feel okay about that.

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