Diversity in the Queer Community

Today, a Fox61 crew showed up at the Rainbow Center to film a student panel that they'll incorporate in a special feature about LGBT issues. There were ten students, including myself, most of whom I knew pretty well. But after hearing all the stories and opinions shared during the interview, I became truly aware of how diverse our community is.

I always preach about how there are LGBT people in all areas of the world and in all facets of life. I witnessed it once again today first hand in our small panel. There were students from different races and ethinicities. Students from different familial backgrounds. Students with different religions; and even the students with the same religion had different takes on what that religion meant to them. We all had our own unique stories. These ten UConn students, mostly residing in Connecticut for most of their lives, could make it seem like we had few things in common, except for our support of the queer movement.

When I go into classes sometimes, I'll be asked how the gay community feels about this or that. And my response is, "It depends on which gay you ask. You can ask ten different gay people and get ten different answers." We're often all pushed into boxes by society and expected to behave within the confines of those boxes. With minorities, there is the added expectation to represent the entire minority community, just because there are fewer of us. But the reality is that we can't represent the entire community, we can only be true to ourselves. Some people will fit stereotypes, some people won't and most people fall in between. But no matter how a person acts or behaves, their individual identity is still valid to who they are. So if you're going to try to put people in boxes, you better find a seperate box for everyone. Decorate mine with glitter please =)