I felt uncomfortable around anyone that identified as LGBTQIA+ but it wasn’t because of their identity. I wasn’t educated about what it meant to be LGBTQIA+, or aware of someone’s experience identifying as LGBTQIA+
DISCLAIMER
This is my first time writing about anyone that identifies as LGBTQIA+ so please discredit any words or phrases that I use that might be disrespectful. I am welcome to any comments that will educate me on how to phrase or word things different. ALSO if you have any websites that might be good resources let me know!
I don’t see many articles about a POV of working/knowing with someone that identifies as LGBTQIA+ for the first time
When I started to know people that identified as LGBTQIA+ I saw that despite the attempt of being understanding I truly did not fully understand someone's experience when they identified as LGBTQIA+.
Around the world anyone who identifies as LGBTIA+ continue to face widespread stigma, exclusion and discrimination, including in education, employment and health care — as well as within homes and communities.
My first experience meeting someone that identified as lesbian was someone that was a family friend. She had a partner and would occasionally babysit me and my sister. Me being very understanding and taught that everyone deserves to be loved and respected no matter who they identified as being didn’t find a problem with our family friend being a woman who was in love with another woman.
When I found myself working with people that identified as trans, queer, bi, and gay I realized many of the terms I was not familiar with.
For me this made me uncomfortable not because people around me identified as LGBTQIA+ but because I wasn’t educated enough to understand people's life experiences and the struggles they most likely went through whether they transitioned or the process of realizing they didn’t belong to a particular gender.
Just like those who experience struggles with their mental health, those who identify as LGBTQIA+ experience stigma
I come from a perspective of someone that feels misunderstood by society because of my experience with bipolar disorder and in some way this disconnection that I feel is a way that I have been able to somewhat understand and feel what someone who identifies as trans or queer might feel like when it comes to society.
I wasn’t aware at all about the importance of pronouns and terms used to describe the LGBTQIA+ community. I knew there was discrimination occurring but was not educated enough to be aware of the increase in discrimination over the last few years.
Most alarmingly, LGBTQ people are reporting an increased incidence of discrimination, falling in particular on LGBTQ people of color, and transgender and nonbinary people. (https://www.glaad.org/)
Overall LGBTQIA+ Americans’ feel unsafe in America.
My experience has prompted me to ask: how do I learn more and support the LGBTQIA+ community?
Supporting the LGBTQIA+ community doesn’t mean wearing rainbows, going to PRIDE parades to just enjoy attending and going to bars, or putting your pronouns on a badge without recognizing why pronouns can be important to another person.
For me learning and hearing from friends, coworkers, and family members who have had experiences being part of conversations or advocacy for the LBBTQIA+ community is something I enjoy.
I never have felt the type of uncomfortableness that I felt when I realized I had never had a conversation with someone who identified as trans about what it is like to identify as trans and what the journey has been like for a person. Keep in mind, similarly to a person that experiences a mental health diagnosis, someone’s experience as identifying as trans is personal and can be uncomfortable to talk about for many.
Someone that identified as trans asked me once about how I felt about being cis. I had never thought about this before.
I discussed with this person that being cis means:
- Going by a name that matches your sex and gender
- Wearing clothing that traditionally matches your sex and gender
- Feeling like your body matches your gender
The concept of feeling like your body matches your gender is something that probably is foreign to people that are cis, let alone the concept of feeling something other than your gender given at birth.
I have found that talking to someone that has lived experience with identifying as LGBTQIA+ is crucial and that educating other people who are ignorant to other peoples POV is important.
Last year a family member came to be complaining about the importance of pronouns. I had previously had a conversation with a coworker about pronouns and passed a long my coworkers insights to this family members.
Me and this family members had some disagreements with what the point of pronouns are but they did seem receptive to the fact that I was telling them a POV of someone that saw pronouns as being important.
Overall I know that curiosity, understanding, and asking questions is something that can help advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community.
Ignorance may be bliss to some but educating oneself and being there for someone when they need it is life changing.
Conclusion
To be human and to participate in life one needs the ability to become and create oneself as they feel comfortable with.
I hope one day society is able to hear more stories of people that identify as LGBTQIA+ because there are a lot of people in the world that are waiting to be welcomed and discover that there is a world out there of people that feel and create a safe space for them to exist.
Everyone deserves a space to be themselves.
Websites that I looked at for this article
