OUR SAFE SPACES

Nightclubs, friend groups, Gayborhoods, Pride shows, chosen families, these are just a few of the places in which LGBT+ have made a home.

The world can be an unforgiving place yet filled with the beauty of diversity and opportunity to try anything, for an LGBT+ person, it can be an even more unforgiving place filled with hate, sadness, and shame.

COMMUNITY

To be LGBT+ is to be human, the very term L G B T + is but a term, a term meant to bring is closer together, a term meant to help us have a community to relate to and be a part of, just as many people have their own communities. Now, being LGBT+ doesn't define anyone's identity, it is simply a characteristic, yet it still becomes one of, if not the most noticeable things about you, Why? Because even though there is increased visibility for LGBT+ people, per population, were still relatively small, and still in some people's perspective, taboo, or trendy, as I have said on several occasions, visibility and popularity has its upsides and downsides in the face of social media.

HISTORY & CULTURE

The history and culture of our community has a different story depending on the region in which you learn it in.

In the United States, we had the "Privilege" of having several LGBT+ movements., most notably, Stonewall in 1969. I use the word privilege here to emphasize that our right to simply living and having equal rights was seen as something to be questioned or won, as if it's some life altering decision to make, as if our lives aren't equal to those of our heterosexual counterparts, so it was something we had to "win", again this word is emphasized here to make it sound as if winning basic rights, in which our country was built upon, was something to be won, like a video game. This can be true in the same way for the rights of women, and the rights of African Americans, Mexican Americans, Native Americans, the list is very long, "if you're not white, then it's not right," a mentality that still plagues parts of our nation. The fight for equality encompasses a large population of people, it's sad when you think about it, everyone must play and win a video game called life in order to be seen as a human.

The rest of the world suffers from a very different, some happy, some sad, versions of LGBT+ history. In many parts of Africa, being LGBT+ can mean a hard life, or even...no life, death. Thousands of LGBT"+ individuals living on the continent of Africa die or are imprisoned every single day, by the very government meant to be taking care of its people. This is a continent that possess countries that still enforce slavery, and from what I have learned, speaking to people and researching on my own, many countries in Africa, with the expectation of a few slightly more progressive ones, are gang and poverty ridden, not in the way you may expect though, many have communities and schools just like you and me, but with a few extra blockades.

So, you ask again, why do we need Safe Spaces?

This article could be much longer; this is but a taste of the realities in our world, it doesn't mean there isn't beauty or happiness or love, but with every "I love you" can follow with a "I hate you," so, I will stop here and answer one simple question: WHY DO WE NEED SAFE SPACES?

Because we are still not seen as the norm, we have to "come out," we cannot just be, we have to explain ourselves like a cookbook, how we work, why we work, and why we don't work. Our history and evolution as a community have influenced why our culture looks the way it does, why we may do the or think the things we do. This doesn't mean we won't explain ourselves; we are fully aware that education is the key, but just like a teacher needs a break from work to just be them, we need a break from the world to just be us. We all need a retreat to somewhere, somewhere where we don't need to explain ourselves, we are understood, validated, and our humanity is never a question, where we can relate to and or are the same as those around us.

We share this world with each other, and share it apart, both of which are needed, both of which bring balance.