Paul Cantrell
I want to send out a heartfelt thanks for Pride (both the month and the ongoing life practice).
Here’s the thing: I’m cisgender, heterosexual, and male. I’m also gender-nonconforming enough to have experienced misunderstanding, disapproval, pressure, and bullying for not fitting neatly in the gender boxes other people have in their minds for me. My life has been a very fortunate life in many ways, but this particular things has caused me a lot of harm over the years.
1/
Paul Cantrell
I am more grateful than I can express to all of you who are trans, lesbian, gay, enby, intersex…queer in all the many ways one can be queer — you whose sexuality and gender has put you in vastly more danger than I’ve ever known in my life — and are out there being visibly, loudly, beautifully your own amazing selves, saying “This is who I am” and spitting directly in the face of hate.
2/
Paul Cantrell
I am grateful because while you’ve been fighting for your own survival, you’ve also been helping make it safer for me to be who I am. Wherever and whenever queerness has become more visible and more accepted, I’ve noticed that I’ve received fewer harmful reactions to my own (relatively mild) nonconformance with gender roles.
I breathe a sigh of relief whenever I see that I’m in a queer-friendly space, because I know there is safety for me there too.
3/
Paul Cantrell
I am sheepish about saying this, because I know this was not •for• me and I am hardly the most important person in all of this…but my gratitude is real.
In gratitude, I make this promise:
I will fight with you and for you, and I will not stop.
I will persuade when it is time to persuade, yell when it is time to yell, vote when it is time to vote, protest when it is time to protest, teach when it is time to teach, and celebrate when it is time to celebrate.
4/
Paul Cantrell
I will use whatever power I have to push relentlessly toward a world where every one of my family members, friends, students, neighbors, fellow inhabitants of earth is — and •knows• they are — seen, valued, loved, and safe.
Including people who are trans, who are lesbian, who are gay, who are non-binary, whose gender or sexuality puts them in danger.
I am grateful for you. I am so glad we are on this Earth together.
/end
Jeff ♨️ Darcy
@inthehands You know that thing about how accommodations for the disabled often end up being good for *everyone*? Same with queer-friendly (or ND-friendly) spaces. By accepting certain kinds of difference, people can learn to accept *difference itself* as a positive value, enabling things that wouldn't be possible otherwise. That's how diversity makes even the most "normal" people stronger.
Paul Cantrell
@Obdurodon Yes, exactly. I was thinking yesterday about Pride’s benefit to all as a kind of “curb cut effect,” much in line with what you’re saying.
Paul Cantrell
Footnote to the above (ht @ShaulaEvans):
chris martens
@inthehands i have very similar feelings wrt disability justice: i’m an incidental benefactor of so much of that work when it was in service of the most vulnerable. I think it goes to show the power of letting those most susceptible to harms make decisions about systems and strategies to mitigate those harms
Paul Cantrell
@stonebear
I’m so glad to be here! 🌈
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