Written By: Naiara Bezerra-Gastesi, Campus Educator
To all my fellow LGBTQ+ and questioning folks… HAPPY PRIDE MONTH! For all of those who are straight and cisgender (a person whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their birth sex) welcome to this blog post.
According to the CDC, queer folks experience disproportionate amounts of sexual and relationship violence and it’s important to talk about and address this. Today though, I’m here to talk about queer joy, sex, and love as tools of resistance.
We live in a structurally homophobic and transphobic world. We’re taught to ignore certain desires, certain bodies, and certain futures. And yet, here we are.
The fact that we have recognized and accepted our queerness is a radical act in itself, a sharp jab at the heteropatriarchy. For this year’s pride month, I’m set on celebrating us.
For cishet (cisgender and straight) folks there are so many romantic, emotional, and sexual life scripts. Flirt, go on a date, have sex, get married, have kids. That’s not to say that cishet folks have it easy, or that all of them follow the same script, but rather that trans and queer folks don’t have this script. What does it mean to have sex when the type of sex you have is not seen as sex? What does it mean to “have kids” when many of us have found queer elders and baby gays, many of whom are not related to us?
To me, this is the beauty of queerness: the creativity and re-imagining that it often requires. With this freedom to make our own relationships, I hope that we critically examine the power dynamics present within our own communities and work to protect those who are more marginalized.
This includes donating to mutual aid funds, showing up to protests, and intentionally building safer queer spaces. We must reject biphobia and trans fetishization. We must uplift and respect queer and trans people of color. We must show up and protect one another.
We deserve so much. So much love, so much respect, and so much appreciation. And I hope you all get a piece of that this June.
Are you LGBTQ+ and looking to learn more?
- To learn more about LGBTQ+ healthy relationships, boundary setting, etc:
- To donate to mutual aid:
- To learn more about racism in queer communities and action steps:
Are you cishet and looking to learn more?
- 101 on LGBTQ Identities & Definitions:
- To learn more about what you can do as an ally:
- To learn more about trans inclusion:
Reminder that abuse is not acceptable. No one desires to be abused, no one has the right to abuse. Call our hotline at 607.277.5000 for free, confidential, judgement free support for people of all ages, gender identities, expressions, and sexual orientations.