Grateful for Queerness.

I am grateful for opportunities to explore my queerness.

For me, queerness has something to do with questioning the power structures supported by the notion that 1 man + 1 woman = marriages/families/privilege, and power imbalances that often exist within this kind of contractual situation. And the reality that I see includes many people, like myself, who are choosing to live their lives differently from this model.

I really do not want my life to be seen as legitimized by the presence of a male-bodied person. I should be allowed respect for my self, even in my female body, and my life as it is now: an independently living person. This in itself for some people might be seen as kind of queer.

Queerness in my mind is not based only in sexuality. I think it might be based in freedom: freedom to explore ones self based on perceptions and self-definition instead of trying to make a life that conforms to traditional hierarchy and historical images of power. These systems and images generally disregard people not living as 1 man + 1 woman, and tend to crush women’s power and ability to determine self in any case.

And yes, I want to claim the power to explore consent-based intimacy, love and sexual experiences with people I want to. I am thinking that what is important to me is the person, not necessarily the expressed gender of the person, that attracts me.

So, yes! I am grateful for queerness, and opportunities to explore the topic personally in relationships and life-choices, and socially in art, performance, poetry, spoken word, music, parties and activism. It offers me hope that there is the potential and vision for a more just world for people to live, be heard, and express themselves in.