Please Care

It gets better, a wee bit. I suppose.

I feel like I’m losing my mind. 

I feel like the only one who cares. 

Why isn’t anyone saying anything? Why aren't they helping? 

Is it because they think it’s nothing to do with them? Is it because they agree with the lies being fed to the nation or is it because they don’t want to evoke the opinions of their close-minded friends? 

I know you don’t think that way, I know you don’t see that way, I know you love me, but you are not who I fear. It is them. 

It is the quiet unengaged, it is the vocal villains. It’s the jokes, it’s the looks, it’s the undermining it’s the minimalisation, it’s the hypocrisy. 

The silence

It is exhausting. 

I am exhausted from fighting a battle that I didn’t ask to be a part of. 

It is exhausting to have to be the person who ‘can’t take a joke’

The person 'you can't say anything in front of'

To be referred to or thought of as hysterical, sensitive or hyper-emotional. 

The dreaded snowflake.

To have to be the person who educates whilst maintaining some form of distance from your own community to provide comfort and a sense of familiarity to non-queer people. 

Tell them how it is, not too much though �" you don’t want to make them feel bad. 

It’s us and it's them. We didn’t ask for that dynamic.

I cannot be upset.

It is exhausting to have to explain to people why calling something ‘Gay or Bent’ is not okay. It is not just a word, it is not just a joke. It is our reality, a reality I must live every single day. 

Can you Imagine someone looking at you and knowing the most intimate things about your life? 

When I am looked at, I am known. 

I am a butch, I am masculine and yet I am a woman. How it must be so confusing for everyone.

In my butchness, I become the picture child for lesbianism. You instantly have access to my private life and all that it could contain.

I have no way of hiding that without completely changing who I am and who I want to be. I am forever out of control.

Remember this when you tell your children that some things are for boys and some things are for girls.

I had to accept there were places I would never see. 

Then, I had to explain to a colleague that yeah, there really are countries that I can’t go to looking like this.

I am not allowed to be angry.

I had to express my discomfort going into public female toilets to some of my closest friends. 

I live in fear of being called out for looking like a boy. I consider not using the bathroom at all.

When my girlfriend reaches for my hand, I have to say, “Not here”.

I want to hold her hand more than ever in those situations. 

When it’s not fear, it's embarrassment. 

I’m embarrassed that people mistake me for a man. I’m so embarrassed that I lower my voice so as not to make them feel bad for misgendering me. 

It’s embarrassing that people stutter when they refer to your ‘partner’.

I’m angry, I’m embarrassed and I’m exhausted.

I will no longer tolerate silence. 

I will no longer tolerate private support. I will no longer say thank you for understanding.

I’m Jaded and I’m fed up spending countless days and nights thinking about how I can say this in the most impactful way. I just have to say it.

If you vote conservative, you hurt me directly. You hurt my friends, and my family.

When you say nothing, you hurt me. Please know that if nothing else. 

Before it was the trans community, they said the same about gay people. 

Stand with the transgender community as they fight a battle they never asked to be a part of. 

 

Almost one in four LGBT people (23%) have witnessed discriminatory or negative remarks against LGBT people by healthcare staff.

 

 

90% of LGBT students hear anti-LGBT comments in school.

 

On average, an LGBT high school student will hear 26 anti-LGBT slurs per day

 

1/3 of which come from a school staff member

 

84% of LGBT youth report verbal harassment at school because of their gender identity and/or sexual orientation.

 

One in eight LGBT people (13%) have experienced some form of unequal treatment from healthcare staff because they’re LGBT.

 

74% of Transgender youth report sexual harassment at school based on their gender identity and expression.

 

25% of LGB students have been physically hurt by another student because of their sexual orientation. 

 

55% of Transgender youth report physical attacks based on their gender identity and/or expression.

 

28% of LGBT youth drop out of school due to this harassment.

 

Greater than 50% of transgender youth attempt suicide. (University of NH)

 

According to akt, 77% of LGBTQ+ young people gave, 'family rejection, abuse or being asked to leave home' as a cause of their homelessness.

Reviews

[LuvFlyer Creations]

As a LGTBQIA student this one really hit home for me. This story captures a certain part of me that i along with others could not capture! Fantastic job and keep up the great work bro!