Hello alphabet mafia and supporters!

Community is a word that is generally included with the LGBTQ+ acronym. So I pose this question; how can a community thrive and succeed if we continue to divide ourselves. We are the LGBTQ+ community for a reason.

I bring this up because I am an observer, often the quiet person sitting back and taking in the entire scene or event. As I observe my surroundings virtually as well as in person, I notice that we are losing sight of community again.

In the 70’s following stonewall, division between gays, lesbians, and trans members of the community became wide. Each group was responsible in seeing the others as not equivalent or being less relevant than their own group in their fight for equality. It wasn’t until the aids pandemic that we saw unity start to re-emerge. (I would like to state that this is not directed towards any group, nor discrediting any individuals or groups that continued to work collaboratively during this time.)

In similar fashion, we are seeing division today. Members of our community are under attack and many seem to be content as it is “not affecting me.” Roe v Wade, Racial injustice, Trans rights, BiPoc Trans Violence, attacks on LGBTQ+ youth, Christian extremists views against our community, all of these effect each and every one of us.

Have you ever heard the phrase “give an inch and they’ll take a mile?” If we continue to stay silent and stay separated we are going to continue to slide backwards in the rights of all individuals in the US. The overturning of Roe V Wade set the rights of people (those with uteruses) back 50 years.

Do you know that a year before RvW was decided, the American Psychological Association removed homosexuality from the list of mental health disorders? How about that the RvW decision was made three years after Stonewall? Or that 6 years before RvW, Inter-racial marriage was legalized?

Am I heading towards a slippery slope fallacy? I do not believe I am? Because I am talking about precedent and time. We are seeing the decisions made 50 years ago being changed today by people that are SUPPOSED TO make decisions based on the interpretation of the constitution without personal bias and religious influence. And if these people can overturn a 50 year precedent, a 7 year one (same-sex marriage) stands no chance.

We need to support and use our voices as a community to prevent the atrocities that are occurring against our community and allies.

We need to stop dividing ourselves more and thinking that we are not next. We need to band together and support each other.

We are not the gay community, the lesbian community, the trans community, the bi community, the q community, etc. We are the LGBTQ+ community. There are intersectionality’s within our community that can not be disputed or ignored. We have gay trans men, gay trans women, gender queer and non binary individuals that could fall into many categories.

As a CIS, white presenting, gay/queer male, I recognize that I have privilege that others do not. I recognize that while my struggles and my set backs exist, that the struggles of others are more difficult and frequent in occurrence.

We need to focus on community. We need to stand together in a time that is slowly turning to resemble American fascism and White Christian Nationalism. Every individual within our community needs to unite with one another and stop being selfish and content with their privileges. I challenge my readers to examine their privilege and reflect on current events and how excluded from other members of the community that privilege makes us.

Love, light, and safety to you all!

Until next time

-Joey TGONTG.