“I came here to be educated!” I can understand that, on some days, I do play into this, but it’s really out of my generosity that I do so. *Expecting it* is a totally different drink and some people have taken a BIG swig today.

This is first and foremost a *queer leftist* space. Cisheteros coming in here and expecting free education must be wilding out because that’s not how any of this works. You, an oppressor, are coming into this space and expecting free work for your own benefit. You are benefitting off of other queer folx with the expectation that exploitation of their emotional and physical labor is alright. It’s not.

LGBTQIA+ folx (who are remarkably different from queer folx), you need to realize that a lot of what you’ve been subjected to is a majority of oppressive beliefs reconstituted to make them seem like they’re accepting when they are not. There is an extreme amount of gatekeeping within the community that limits the growth of actual liberation and plays into the idea of oppression. A lot of what you take in is not for your benefit, but for the benefit of a system you gain something from. Excluding valid identities only amplifies your grasp and hinders folx that are trying to discover themselves by feeding them prescriptive labels.

Queer folx have been through a LOT and want to work through towards liberation. We can only do this by destroying the idea of a set list of things you need to check off in order to be a specific label and by accepting everyone who is queer without question. It is not up to us to debate if they are allowed to exist when they clearly *do*.
We have a bigger goal, one that seeks to remove oppression, which requires our attention over small squabbles that drag people through the mud. That’s not how we work and not what we stand for. If you’re queer and you’re standing for that, you’ll want to reevaluate yourself honestly and figure out what you need to work on in order to achieve that.

If you are genuinely looking for education, being defensive doesn’t help anyone but yourself right off the bat. Wasting my time by beginning with “WTF IS THIS?” instead of “Hey, I don’t get this. Could someone please fill me in so I can be a better comrade?” is how I can tell if the conversation is going to go south or not. If you’re not respecting the identity right out, you’re never going to grasp it because you don’t honor it. I’m not going to waste my time trying to educate a defensive person when I have another 10 fires going on. 🤷‍♀️ I am one person against a swarm of people trying to debate someone’s existence when they should just be accepting of it. My emotional and physical labor is better spent elsewhere.

This is my space, one where I provide many folx who are marginalized a nice haven away from the constant barrage of oppression we face. I am working towards a future where we don’t tiff over little things like another person’s identity which doesn’t affect your own. We do this by holding each other accountable and calling out our biases and internalized oppression to work on them. Are you on this bus or are you getting off here?