Happy (almost) Pride Month to all of our LGBTQIA+ brothers, sisters, and siblings! True to form, I will start this next section with a bit of history:
June was established as Pride Month after the Stonewall riots in June of 1968. Stonewall Inn was the name of a gay bar in New York City where police officers forcibly dragged patrons and employees because gay behavior in public was still ILLEGAL at this time. This event sparked 6 days of riots in Greenwich Village and ignited the gay rights movement in the United States. This month, I am celebrating by reflecting on my relative privilege as a straight person and my privilege in general. I know a lot more about being privileged than I do about being marginalized and, as with all of my writing and creative pursuits, I wish to stay in my lane. The following is a reflection on my experience of privilege: Somatically, my experience of privilege is often an experience of the absence of pervasive anxiety, rage, shame, and dread relative to my experience of oppression. I remember the surprise I felt when one of my mentors mentioned that he came out before “homosexuality” was removed from the list of psychological pathologies and paraphilias. He discussed needing to hide his true self back then and still at times to this day. I realized at that moment that, even though I have a lot of LGBTQ+ individuals in my personal and professional life, I can easily forget all of the overt and subtle ways that queer identified folks are historically and currently marginalized by means of the basic structures of society. I still frequently have conversations with queer folks that remind me of how much my straightness lacks the relative friction that a queer identity has in our current culture. As someone who has always been “progressive” when it comes to social issues, it's easy to see privilege in people who are overtly racist, queer-phobic, et cetera and harder to see it in myself and others who identify as allies. I do reflect periodically on the marginalization I experience being a woman, especially having lived in Texas the majority of my life. I do not reflect as often or automatically about the experience of skin color privilege, straight privilege, being born in a middle class zip code, et cetera because my privilege in these areas means that I don’t have to think about these aspects of myself and adjust my natural behavior to survive and succeed in life. To me this is what privilege means: fewer obstacles to functioning in my community/country/world, from basic survival all the way to achieving my hopes and dreams. Privilege means I don’t have to think about oppression and marginalization if I don’t want to. I do not spend a lot of time consciously thinking about my marginalized identities (woman/neurodiverse/chronic pain) but when I do reflect, I can see that it is something that I automatically factor in when making life decisions. For example, when Texas appeared to be heading in an anti-woman direction, I decided to leave permanently and reestablish my life in a place that tries to protect women and other marginalized groups. I was aware that I would be moving to a whiter area but I did not have to think about where I would be safe racially in Colorado because I am privileged. I did not have to think about accessibility because I am not disabled. In my career, I have had to think about how I need to dress and present myself because I can be a bit eccentric but not because I was at risk of looking “too queer” which would inspire rejection and opportunity loss due to unconscious or conscious homophobia. I wish I did not have to think about "being a woman" from an oppression standpoint when making life decisions and I wish the same freedom for all other marginalized identities. In fact, I have noticed an historical aversion to reflecting on my marginalized identities because I feel powerless when I do. I have made it more of a point to think about my own marginalization periodically because it brings me into my own reality and fosters compassion in me for other marginalized experiences. I yearn for the day where we live in a world where people are “judged for the content of their character (MLK, Jr)” rather than their social identities. And, even then, when people are unable to show up in a constructive way, I yearn for a world that is trauma informed and treats people with respect for their temperaments and life contexts/histories. I yearn for the day where we live in a world that is inclusive of people of varying abilities, sexual and gender expressions, neurotypes, and wealth statuses. I am calling in a world that is open minded and accessible and eschews dominance and extraction. I believe the best way I can act on that now is by understanding privilege dynamics by seeing them within myself along with giving money, creating opportunity, and doing work in my community that supports marginalized groups.
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AuthorProsopon Therapy Archives
July 2024
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