Why Telling Our Queer Stories (And Listening to Them) Can Be So Powerful
Telling our personal queer stories is powerful because too often the stories we hear most are those of affluent, white, gay men. Telling our stories is only powerful though, when we’re open to listening to the stories of others.
Host: Julian Crosson-Hill
While reading a collection of essays called Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots, I was inspired to talk about the power of telling our queer stories. When we tell our stories, we often challenge one another. Each of us has been conditioned to believe that our experience of being queer is the same as others. That’s not true. Also, in our current society we most often hear the stories of the affluent and the white. Much of queer culture has been condensed down to the experience of affluent, white, gay men. We need to create opportunities for hearing the stories of all queer people—trans, non-binary, bisexual, people of color, disabled, and more.
Telling our stories is only part of the equation though. The power of telling our queer stories is only truly released when we listen to one another without judgement. Our current queer culture is obsessed with making judgements and affixing labels. In order to build a strong and supportive community, we need to release our own judgements.
Key Points:
- How we arrived at a culture that largely tells only one subgroup’s stories
- How telling our stories can create understanding
- The importance of letting go of judgement
- How fear plays a role in judgement
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