lizardlicks:

curlicuecal:

podcastslover:

starmashine:

mrfritzteufel:

realtransfacts:

You’re more than just dysphoria and a target of transphobia (img source)

this is why I’m against the narrative of “being LGBT is defined by suffering, if you don’t suffer you don’t belong to LGBT or Pride”. it’s incredibly damaging to queer people, especially queer kids who are just figuring out how their sexuality or gender identity figures into their overall identity. this narrative shoves them back into the closet if they don’t suffer “enough”, and how much one must suffer is completely arbitrary

also hey most young folks dont have super diverse experiences under their belt yet due to being, like, young. there are only a few narratives of queer suffering out there, and thus the definition of queer suffering and what that looks/feels like is very narrow and doesn’t always apply to a lot of queer youth. 

so, like, promoting the concept of “LGBTQ = suffering” means queer kids may not recognize when something they’re going through is because of their queerness, and disregard that and themselves even if it is. 

also pressures queer kids to come out for the sake of suffering and feeling ‘valid’ even if they aren’t safe or ready to.

There’s this thing that happens with minority groups. We come together because of the discrimination but we stay together for the culture. But people seem to forget that – LGBTQIA+ people aren’t just together because we suffer, we’re together because we have something to celebrate in the uniqueness we share. There’s something fundamentally wrong about working towards a better world with less discrimination and then gatekeeping newer members of the community because we don’t feel they’re suffered enough. THAT WAS THE GOAL.

Every queer person you feel hasn’t suffered enough to qualify as queer is proof of a better world. A better world is what we said we wanted, but it’s not going to be what we get if we let our identities be defined by suffering.

Worth noting that when a group too strongly roots their identity in the idea of persecution you eventually get stuff like American Christians being convinced they are a persecuted minority

This also paints an incredibly bleak future where we will never not be suffering. Idk about you, but that’s not the future I’m trying to achieve.