queer and qualified: i want to be gay but i have to work

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The comprehension of drowning

Writing by Max, images by Fariha, Evelyn

It wasn’t always this way. I did not always feel so small. But the way they look at me, it’s so clear. They could simply say the words instead, it would make no difference. Maybe it would have been better to play pretend. To say nothing, how could I have been so stupid to think people wouldn’t act this way when they found out

‘Look at it, the freak,’ their stares say. ‘Look at its hair, if it wanted to fool us it would try harder.’

I close my eyes for a moment as I recompose myself before going back about with my work.

When on my break, they avoid me. Attempts to make small talk with those who once called me friend are met with cold shoulders. With glances devoid of humanity, as if I’ve become an alien speaking a fictional language.

I am 12 again, in my bathing suit, in my newly changing body–hyper aware of the skin I am in as I walk along the pool deck.

At 12, Swimming was nice because underwater everything becomes hidden and distorted. Once I made it from the change room to the water everything was fine.

A group of coworkers walk by and I hear it, it isn’t just in my head. It is no longer merely their stares. It is in their mouths, the words they say about me. The words that put me underwater by force, filling my lungs and throat with sharp salt and bitter chlorine. Making my eyes red and my skin raw. The 12 year old me had no comprehension of drowning on dry land.

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Actively Hoping

How can we change our surroundings?

As queer people, we were [un]welcomed into a society that tried its hardest to modify us, fit us into boxes, exterminate us, and everything that makes us who we are. Some of us might have wished to be different when facing a challenging reality. However, the truth is:

There is no changing who we are.

So, what can we wish for?

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Don't fight alone; we are a community. Unite with peers and advocate together. Rights are not given; they're won. Our fight resonates with other marginalized groups facing oppression - so, extend your helping hand to those around you. Together, we challenge outdated systems for faster change.

This is an invitation – take part in it as much as you can but do take part. Let’s all hope. Actively together.

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QUEER LIBERATIONIN THE WORK FORCE

#01 Change Through Struggle #01 Change Through Struggle

#02 Inclusivity in daily life #02 Inclusivity in daily life

#03 queer liberation literature #03 queer liberation literature

#01

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.

- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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#02 INCLUSIVITY IN DAILY LIFE

As queers, what we want is to...

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QUEER LIBERATION LITERATURE #03

“Just “Just fighting for change makes fighting for change makes you stronger. you stronger. Not hoping for Not hoping for anything will kill you for sure... anything will kill you for sure...

Try imagining a world worth living Try imagining a world worth living in, and then ask yourself if that in, and then ask yourself if that isn’t worth fighting for.” isn’t worth fighting for.”

Stone Butch Blues

by Leslie Feinberg (american

lesbian author)

Toward A Scientific Analysis of the Gay Question

by the LA Research Group

“sometimes it's important to “sometimes it's important to be be alive alive than to live. ” than to live. ”

a place called No Homeland

by Kai Cheng Thom

(chinese canadian transwoman)

“Our investigation leads us to “Our investigation leads us to believe that the material basis for believe that the material basis for

the the oppression of gays oppression of gays can be found can be found in the role of the bourgeois nuclear in the role of the bourgeois nuclear family under class society in the family under class society in the maintenance and perpetuation of maintenance and perpetuation of the division of labor.” the division of labor.”