An Opinion, by Kimberly Le
Just a Small Town Girl, Living in a Corporate World All right, you caught me, I was in fact going to name this article, "I Don't Know About You, But I'm Feeling Anxious Too (About Our World)" in hopes that my reader will sing it in the tune of Taylor Swift's critically acclaimed song, "22", from her album, Red (Taylor's Version, of course). But this isn't about Taylor Swift, or Journey, it's about one of the world's biggest threats—and if you guessed global warming, corporations and capitalism, or the division in many of the worlds' countries, communities, and individuals, you'd be correct. I'm not here to bring the mood down. By now you know that all of those aforementioned ills are real—just read the news or look outside (no, not literally). Where have we gone wrong? Are we going to be here in "x" amount of years? What if the movies about dystopias or post-apocalyptic earth were right? Reading all of that I am sure made you feel anxious, it's because you care, and know that you are not alone in feeling the same way. You feel helpless knowing that certain conditions force you to increase your carbon footprint. You may be angry knowing the biggest contributors to greenhouse gasses, deforestation, fossil fuels, etc. are corporations, but then we are back to feeling helpless because again, certain conditions put us in a situation where we resort to investments or activities that increase our carbon footprint. I get it. It's not easy being green. We have to understand that we are all entitled to different individual needs and wants; I can't make someone become vegan overnight (nor would I want to) or start riding my nonexistent bike to school. But I am an individual capable of and willing to change. Whether it is in the physical things I do, shifting my mindset to make use of what I have instead of buying more of something, I, and thus you, have to acknowledge we are not and could never be perfect. We cannot limit ourselves to a black-white scale where we must either be zero or 100%. We are imperfect, but we are trying. You might be able to relate this back to the classroom when you sit in the awkward and painful silence after a teacher or professor has asked a question. No one wants to make a fool out of themselves and get it wrong, but how can we know we are right? The answer? Staring at your educator until they either give in or call on someone. But now your teacher is the earth asking you, "what can we do?". Going back to the aforementioned ills of our world, the common denominator is sustainability. If there ever was a "word of the year", I would hope that "sustainability" was the winner. The word has applied itself in many different contexts than just being environmentally-concerned. "Sustainability" doesn't only mean buying biodegradable items or thrifting (though those are excellent substitutes to their counterparts). Sustainability also means holding those in power accountable for prioritizing healthier habits for the betterment of the individual employee and of the environment (thus, the company as a whole). Sustainability can also mean educating yourself and what you are able and have access to making changes, regardless of brevity, in your own life and educating those within your circles. Sustainability might look like healthy communication, a fair and just democracy, or having your "Meatless (or Meat Allowed) Mondays". See a pattern? These are changes you, myself, or the individual can make. I could sit here and raise my fist at corporate America or billionaires of the world or be completely pessimistic because simply, "I give up", but no, I don't want to do that—I don't want to give up. The point of writing this blog post is for selfish reasons: I, myself, am going through an environmental crisis (re: the second paragraph) and had no way of expressing my anxiety without stressing someone else out (and if that is you, I encourage you to step away and center yourself because this post is not worth your mental health). But it is in hopes of creating a dialogue between me, the author, and you, my fantastic and courageous reader. We can only make meaningful change if we truly desire to do so, but if not, feel free to move out of the way so someone else can until you are ready. And I am most definitely not expecting you to tackle all of these different sanctions of sustainability all at once (remember the black-white scale? Yeah, it still applies). An idea is still an idea. A step forward is better than two steps back. Changing one habit at a time is still changing. Life is gradual; I know it may look like those predictions that WHO or the CDC or any federal organization about "We will have this by 2030" or "we will lose this by 2025". But we have time, I promise. I write this on January 25th, 2022 and by December 25th, 2022, I know I will have become a different person. Growth is inevitable, and to give others the benefit of the doubt, I hope it's for the better. So, what now? Well, I am glad you asked, reader. I might "uno reverse" that same question to you: so, what? Maybe you'll step away from the computer or mobile device and go on about your day without a second thought to what you have just read. Maybe you'll step away and contemplate and do some self-reflection. Or maybe if you're like me, you're looking for what you can do everyday, or right now, or within a week or two, to start this new chapter of mine. If that's you, I thought I'd give you something to explore as both a thank you for making it this far, and to tell you that if you were looking for a sign to be sustainable, this is the moment to begin. -Kimberly L.
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On a personal level, I know that I wouldn’t be where I am today without the numerous Black LGBTIA+ writers who not only challenged color lines but norms surrounding gender and sexuality as well. However, many of these writers are not widely known by name today in spite of their contributions. Over the next few months, and not only during Black History Month, I will be sharing short entries about influential individuals and some of their works in hopes to help keep their legacies alive.
She passed away at the age of 60, but her diary compilation Give Us Each Day was published posthumously and gave readers over 50 years later a deeper insight into who Nelson truly was. From my view, not knowing if she consented to having those writings published leave me conflicted but it does bring me joy to know that she seemingly accepted her feelings for more than one gender and found love.
As someone who did not “come out” until adulthood (not that it is a one time event or requirement), I feel a lot of emotions when I consider the possibilities of Thurman’s experiences and what may have happened had he lived longer. We may never truly know if he was finding himself in his writing, but he undoubtedly helped many others see ways to love and accept themselves. Bayard Rustin (1912–1987)
Rustin was perhaps best known having been by the side of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during public demonstrations. Though many younger people may not know who he was, even those who have heard of him may not have known that Rustin was gay. Unfortunately, he was forced to spend over a month in jail and register as a sex offender for being caught being consensually intimate with another man in the 1950s. For this reason, he had to take a more private role in fighting for civil rights, which may have been the reason for why he wrote as many powerful pieces as he did! Some of his works include Civil rights: The True Frontier (1963) and Down the Line: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin (1971). For the last decade of his life, he was in a relationship with Walter Naegle (pictured to the right of Rustin), who would eventually accept Rustin’s Medal of Freedom that was posthumously awarded in 2013. Rustin was not pardoned of the crime he was charged with until 2020, which finally legally cleared his name. - Bek Sources and Further Reading: "Alice Dunbar Nelson." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, 20 Jul. 1998. academic-eb-com.proxy.seattleu.edu/levels/collegiate/article/Alice-Dunbar-Nelson/2904. "Bayard Rustin." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, 5 Feb. 2020. academic-eb-com.proxy.seattleu.edu/levels/collegiate/article/Bayard-Rustin/1454. Gilmore, Matthew. Bayard Rustin & James Baldwin: Fighters and Friends. 2014. Shareef, Muhammad. "Black and Queer in the Harlem Renaissance." Queer Majority, edited by Lorien Hunter, Oct. 2020, www.queermajority.com/essays-all/black-and-queer-in-the-harlem-renaissance. Viera, Bené. "This Harlem Renaissance writer seemed to live an ordinary life — but her diaries revealed years of passionate lesbian affairs." Timeline, 13 Apr. 2018, timeline.com/alice-dunbar-nelsons-diaries-revealed-years-of-lesbian-affairs-f1469a6d591a. This post will provide a brief overview of different asexual and aromantic identities, history, and how everyone can do better in respecting and including them in all spaces! Asexuality most commonly refers to the lack of sexual attraction one feels toward others. However, it can also encompass identities in which people experience low, rare, or situational sexual attraction. Since it can mean a variety of things it is also used as an umbrella term for other identities such as demisexuality, gray-asexuality, akoisexuality or lithsexuality, reciprosexuality, and aceflux. Similar to asexuality, aromanticism most commonly refers to the lack of romantic attraction one feels toward others while also being an umbrella term for those who experience low, rare, or situational romantic attraction. These identities include demiromanticism, grayromanticism, akoiromanticism or lithromanticism, recipromanticism, and aroflux. While a-spec identities are part of the community on their own, they can also coincide with other LGBTQIA+ romantic or sexual orientations, such as if a person were biromantic and asexual or if another were aromantic and gay.
In recent years, prominent characters in my favorite shows have been either identified in the plots or by their creators as being such. Some examples are Todd from BoJack Horseman, Peridot from Steven Universe, and Varys from Game of Thrones. Though media coverage and representation have gradually started to increase, a-spec identities are not new or a trend. In the 1940s and 50s, the Kinsey Scale, in spite of mostly focusing on the scale of heterosexuality to homosexuality, came to recognize people who reported “no socio-sexual contacts or reactions” as being in the category “X.” Though this recognition was not viewed in a way that was entirely positive nor accurate, this is one of the earliest examples of scientific data collected on people who would possibly identify as asexual today. About 20 years ago, David Jay, who identifies as asexual, founded the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) to remedy the lack of resources regarding asexuality. Similar to AVEN, sites such as Aromantic-spectrum Union for Recognition, Education, and Advocacy (AUREA) provide resources to support aromantic people and also educate others to better understand them. AVEN members walked in the San Francisco Pride Parade for the first time in 2009. A year later, the Asexual Pride Flag was introduced, and Sara Beth Brooks also founded Asexual Awareness Week. The week occurs in late October, which was from October 24 to 30 this year, and actually focuses on all a-spec identities. One topic that has emerged in some spaces is whether or not people who identify with the asexual and aromantic spectrum (also known as a-spec) belong in the community at all. At its core, this may seem very silly to many, as all of these identities deviate from heteronormativity in terms of the sexual or romantic attraction they experience or don’t experience, but it has long been a topic of contention inside and outside of the community. In my view, the aforementioned criteria are more than enough for a-spec people to be included under the large umbrella that covers so many people in the LGBTIA+ community. As is often the case, I also believe that it is misconceptions and sometimes hypocrisy from even others within our community that continue to fuel the perceived need to push out people who are both misunderstood and are in no way harming others by living their truths. We should all do our best to hear what they have to say and believe them, as well as support and celebrate who they are. To exclude them from our spaces and discourse does not make sense to me as they have always been here and deserve to have community as we all do. - Bek Sources and Further Reading: AUREA, www.aromanticism.org/. Pasquier, Morgan. "Explore the spectrum: Guide to finding your ace community." GLAAD, 2018, www.glaad.org/amp/ace-guide-finding-your-community. Prause, Nicole, and Cynthia A. Graham. "Asexuality: Classification and Characterization." The Kinsey Institute, 2006, kinseyinstitute.org/pdf/PrauseGraham-Asexuality.pdf. The Asexual Visibility and Education Network, www.asexuality.org/. |
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January 2024
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