Breaking the Spell: Rethinking queer community

Julie · 08-26-2011, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amiyesiam

Awesome post!
Ok, my gut reaction to outing yourself after reading about the place you went for work yesterday is: NO, I don't even know you but the idea of someone who seems so sweet, nice, and kind being hurt by men/people like that scares the HELL out of me. And maybe it is my baggage to unpack that I don't want the nice ones hurt. Maybe if you were some where different. Maybe if you didn't live alone, maybe I don't want to see anyone hurt. But maybe statistically your changes of being hurt are higher.
We have a sticker on our car and I am out everywhere and yes sometimes I feel nervous when we are out and about. But I have never had to face what you faced just doing your job.
Maybe it's just pony time, but this is really really hit me hard emotionally, so I will have to think about this.

I really have to agree with Ami on this. Sometimes it is just best to not place yourself in danger. It has nothing to do with shame - It has to do with surviving.

We are no good to one another hurt or worse, dead. We need to be alive and safe, so we can continue to grow as a society and hope one day, people will in fact evolve.

I am a Jew and I am fair with light eyes. My sister is the opposite - she is semetic in appearance. If I had been alive during Nazi Germany -- I would not have walked outside with a sign announcing I was Jewish. I would have passed as a non-jew quite easily and used this to survive. It is how I was also able to pass in the Muslim community in the middle east (for purposes I needed to do at the time - I lived in the Muslim community - did not want to live in the Jewish community) and how I was able to pass and witness KKK meetings.

I am completely out where I live. I have always been out - But, I also grew up in Los Angeles and lived in West Hollywood. I now live in New York, and while I live in small towns and have had some issues.. They were never life threatening issues.

There is no shame Belle - In surviving and being safe.

Julie