My identity...
As we approach the end of Pride Month, I decided to give thought to something in the LGBT+ community: identity. In this, I realized that so many "communities" throw this concept around, and use it to create these little insular sub-groups, and invert the inclusivity that used to exist.
History bears the fact that the LGBT+ community came about from the misconceptions and legal oppression of adults with attractions to adults of the same gender, and pretty much anyone who was viewed as anything but "normal". It took a couple riots springing from police raids to finally bring the fight public, and take the steps to get to where we are today. However, this "identity" thing always infiltrated: gay men and lesbians didn't want to work together, african-americans faced a lot of hate from other african-americans, and how many of us noted the "no fats or femmes" in personal ads?
This is just one community where identity becomes a divider. Political, racial, wealth, education, sports, music...name a community or group of people with an over-arching commonality, and you will find layers of identities that someone will point to one and say "Hey, I don't like that you identify as this!" How the hell??? One little aspect of my entire being suddenly changes your view about me?
I see this attachment to labels and identity as a part of the sickness that infests our society. Lately, politics have been one of the most glaring examples of how identity is used as a divider. "It's us against them!" "It's the Democrats!" "How can you still support Republicans?" "LIBTARD!!" and so on. Have we forgotten that we are all Americans?
Were I to list off everything that I "identify" as, I'd be on this posting for quite awhile. I will list a few things, though, just to show how complex and difficult this is to break the whole into parts.
I'm a cis-gender male.
I'm homosexual.
I'm monogamous
I'm part of the furry fandom
I'm part of the anime fandom
I'm middle aged.
I'm almost out of the "morbidly" obese classification.
I have mental health issues.
I like a drink sometimes
I'm not religious.
I'm politically center-left.
I love a wide range of musics
I'm a metalhead
I'm a lover of hardstyle
I suffer from writer's block
I have a weird sense of humor.
I'm not always PC.
etc,etc,etc...
That's just a bit of what make me who I am. I'm sure that someone would recoil in horror at something I've admitted about myself, but in the end, there's only one thing I identify as which really matters.
I identify as a human being.
That's all.
-Nerikull
History bears the fact that the LGBT+ community came about from the misconceptions and legal oppression of adults with attractions to adults of the same gender, and pretty much anyone who was viewed as anything but "normal". It took a couple riots springing from police raids to finally bring the fight public, and take the steps to get to where we are today. However, this "identity" thing always infiltrated: gay men and lesbians didn't want to work together, african-americans faced a lot of hate from other african-americans, and how many of us noted the "no fats or femmes" in personal ads?
This is just one community where identity becomes a divider. Political, racial, wealth, education, sports, music...name a community or group of people with an over-arching commonality, and you will find layers of identities that someone will point to one and say "Hey, I don't like that you identify as this!" How the hell??? One little aspect of my entire being suddenly changes your view about me?
I see this attachment to labels and identity as a part of the sickness that infests our society. Lately, politics have been one of the most glaring examples of how identity is used as a divider. "It's us against them!" "It's the Democrats!" "How can you still support Republicans?" "LIBTARD!!" and so on. Have we forgotten that we are all Americans?
Were I to list off everything that I "identify" as, I'd be on this posting for quite awhile. I will list a few things, though, just to show how complex and difficult this is to break the whole into parts.
I'm a cis-gender male.
I'm homosexual.
I'm monogamous
I'm part of the furry fandom
I'm part of the anime fandom
I'm middle aged.
I'm almost out of the "morbidly" obese classification.
I have mental health issues.
I like a drink sometimes
I'm not religious.
I'm politically center-left.
I love a wide range of musics
I'm a metalhead
I'm a lover of hardstyle
I suffer from writer's block
I have a weird sense of humor.
I'm not always PC.
etc,etc,etc...
That's just a bit of what make me who I am. I'm sure that someone would recoil in horror at something I've admitted about myself, but in the end, there's only one thing I identify as which really matters.
I identify as a human being.
That's all.
-Nerikull
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