FFFFEEEEEAAAAttttt rrrrreeee
Once I came to terms with the fact that I was gay, it was a constant battle with what I had been raised to believe. I spent years crying myself to sleep and praying that somehow God would find it in him to “un-gay” me. If my existence alone was already a sin, what was the point of existing? I was never going to be able to tell my family, so there was no point.
It took me five years to accept who I was. For some that may be longer, while for others it may be shorter; the queer experience is never the same. Historically, gay people have been silenced and taught to repress our identities. We’ve been conditioned to hide who we are from the world, and yet we’re still here. Many of us can’t go out without getting talked about or looked at in a certain way. But while we’ve learned to live with it, we shouldn’t have to.
Queer resilience is something that never should have existed in the first place. The idea of ostracizing people in society based on who they’re attracted to or how they’d like to present their gender is a modern one, barely dating back a couple hundred years. The ancients such as the Greeks, Egyptians, and even pre-colonial Filipinos didn’t really mind sexual fluidity. Why should we? Why should millions of people be forced to hide who they are just to make a few people comfortable?
Homophobia is all fun and games until it’s someone we care about. What about when it’s a family member or a friend? Queer people are everywhere. They’re our aunts and uncles, our cousins and our friends, and even our parents. We refuse to let our existence continue to be trampled over and silenced. We all deserve a chance to love who we want to and be who we want to be on our own terms, without fear of being hatecrimed.