Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Pride in Being Yourself

“Being gay is like having a super power. I don’t mind it all.”

In reality, not being straight often sucks. My experiences with oppression in a society not built to serve me in terms of sexuality and struggles with gender identity can attest to that. Because I am deeply involved in fighting against structures of privilege and violence, it is easy for me to get frustrated and upset — to the point that I feel like my identity and the identities of many others are solely giant blockades that can never be truly overcome.

Yet, being a part of the LGBTQ community is also great. It is wonderful and beautiful and exciting and affirming. And as important as it is to fight the good fight, it is equally as important to celebrate. It is vital to recognize and to proclaim loudly what makes being a queer person so special.

Because of my sexuality, I have been forced to constantly reflect on who I am, how I see the world, and where I see my place in this world in a unique way. In terms of sexuality, I do not fit into what I was and am told that I am “supposed” to be or what the “default” option is. Though I am sometimes forced to reflect more deeply than I would like to, because I must contemplate my identity and the world around me in the context of this, I have become a master of reflection. I do not agree with the meaning that society and many people within that society have assigned to my sexuality; therefore, based on my life experiences and my understanding of the way the world should work, I create and assign my own meaning. This kind of identity formation has been and always will be quite the journey for me. As a result, I have no problem looking at all of my experiences, evaluating them, and finding the very real, very important meaning within them. Wherever I go and in all that I do, I try to utilize this reflective ability.

Being a bastion of social justice, I am obsessed with the fact that one of my identities automatically refuses to fit into the dominant narrative of history. Because of structures of privilege, violence and oppression, so much of what matters to people within the LGBTQ community is stereotyped, modified wrongly or completely eradicated. Simply by existing and telling my story, I start to change that prevailing, unjust narrative into something more encompassing and more real. My queerness gives me the ability to take something problematic at its core and begin flipping it on its head. As frustrating as it is to have to do this flipping in the first place, I can at least be grateful that my place within the LGBTQ community gives me a window to understanding what needs to be done to unravel this narrative.

Next, being a part of the LGBTQ community is like having a support system built right into one of my identities. As wonderful as allies are (shout-out to the straight girls that make up a good portion of my friend group), allies can only understand to a point. There is no greater feeling than finding someone who “gets it,” someone who knows what it is like to live and experience the world as a queer person. Connections with other members of the LGBTQ community have been definitive, formative moments in my life. Divisions and rungs of privilege within the LGBTQ community are very real. These divisions and rungs of privilege must be discussed and evaluated, and we must fight to tear them down. Yet, at the end of the day, the LGBTQ community that I interact and surround myself with is united in difference. It is understanding and supportive in the way that only a queer person can be for another queer person.

Finally, and most importantly, as a member of the LGBTQ community, I am automatically on a different level of fab-ness than the rest of the world. It’s intrinsic; it’s an indisputable fact that LGBTQ people can walk, talk and live more fabulously than straight people ever can. I may be that (so very) awkward white boy, but if there is one thing in this world that I can always fall back on, it is the fab-ness inherent to who I am.

My membership in the LGBTQ community is an integral part of my life. It is a lens through which I see the world; it is an identity that I love, cherish, adore and celebrate. Though it is not all there is to me, it is something that informs my decisions and that shapes the core of who I am. Despite the pain, despite the struggle, my queer identity makes me me, and I would not trade it for the world.

 

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