Love is Love is Love is Love is Love is Love is Love is Love is Love is Love is Love is …
A Deeper Look:
Love is Love – seems like a simple concept. Yet, people in the LGBTQ community endure hatred, violence, and discrimination of all types from housing and jobs to where they can go to the bathroom. Patriarchy, capitalism, racism, ableism, beauty culture/sizeism, and poverty affect all of our lives and make the most significant impact on marginalized communities.
Individuals who identify as Trans or Gender non-Conforming make up about .6% of our population here in the U.S. That may sound like a very small number but it translates to over 1.4 million Americans. Even if the number of Trans people were less, they deserve to feel safe and respected; and because they so often don’t, they deserve and require our heightened attention.
Gay Marriage which is part of American culture is being threatened once again by our White Nationalist culture.
Steps We Can Take:
Question authority. Question traditional paradigms. Queer everything. Also, check out the organizations below and see if there’s an impact you can make by donating or volunteering, for example.
GALAEI is “a queer Latin@ social justice organization. Queer acknowledges and represents the mosaic of sexual and gender identities within our communities. Latin@ represents the multiracial, multicultural experience of Latinidad. Galaei embodies the common history of resistance and resilience of Latin@ and queer people. We are unwavering in our commitment to the advancement de nuestra familia through leadership and economic development, sexual empowerment, and grassroots organizing.” We had an engaging conversation with Francisco Cortes, the interim executive director of GALAEI, about the work that he does for and with the organization to bring social justice to the queer Latinx community. As a Mexican immigrant and gay Philadelphian, Francisco is passionate about queer and trans, Latinx and Black youth empowerment and leadership development, and he brought that passion to our studio conversation. Listen in Be Your Whole Self
Walnut Psychotherapy Center – a psychotherapy practice which focuses on the LGBTQ population in Philadelphia, refusing to pathologize LGBTQ people and recognizing the negative impact of societal marginalization. Walnut Psychotherapy Center views the ability of people to survive a life of marginalization as “a profound strength and a sign of resiliency.” Dr. Danna Bodenheimer, founder of the Walnut Psychotherapy Center writes a great blog and it is there that we read her take on “Queering Diagnosis and Theory“. Danna founded the Center to provide access to long term psychodynamic psychotherapy to the LGBTQ community in a safe therapeutic environment. Questioning Dominant Paradigms
Voices:
Elise Gaul has a Master’s degree in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and is a Licensed Professional Counselor. Elise, and her patient, tolerant, college-age son, Ryan Macalucci generously agreed to speak with us to explore some of the issues that arise when you are or when you have, a transgender or gender non-conforming family member. There’s a Long To-do List