#queer women trans women women of colour

[lollytea]

Tbh I think the Barbie movie handled its theme of existentialism better than the feminism.

[angelfacemjj]

Hey, this is your friendly reminder that cisnormativity and gender binarism are products of colonialism and racism, so I really recommend you, white trans people, to start engaging with anti racism, because ignoring our experiences and upholding white supremacy is only gonna worsen the situation. <3

[dove-da-birb]

🌈

For the queer ask game ^^

🌈 - What's a Queer Identity, Experience or a piece of History you feel deserves more recognition?

All queer history doesn't get enough attention, so really, all of it

The bare minimum though is knowing about Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera (aka tired of white queer folk forgetting AND dismissing how important they are)

As for identity? Demi-gender, I never see any media covering them; demigirl, demiboy. But really, any gender falling outside of the binary. As for romantic and sexual attraction? Anything falling under the a-spec umbrella.

*aka I am tired of having to do a powerpoint when I come out to people

[buoyrot]

Lady of the Lake

[runin-reads]

I’m a trans guy, but I still identify with the term woman of colour and daughter.

‘Woman of colour (WOC)’ is a broad term and I am sensitive to the fact that different races/ethnicities deal with different stereotypes. However there are no other words I can think of that are as inclusive specific for discussing the intersection between misogyny and racism. And it’s that specific intersection that has played such a huge role in shaping not only who I am as a man, but also how I perceive the world and how the world perceives me. Being perceived as a WOC is so quintessential to who I am that it doesn’t matter how long I spend as a guy, I feel as if I’ll always be tethered to those words.

I was a daughter before anything else, after all. And before I was a brown guy, I was a brown girl. Yet somehow it feels as if I am all of them at the same time.

[gratedlight]

[rebellum]

Me: hey there's a big issue with anti-masculinity in queer and leftist spaces. Trans fems, if they don't constantly perform hyperfemininity and aren't little and skinny and white, are demonised and people call them pedophiles because there's such a dislike of any association with masculinity. Trans mascs are told they're "whiny MRAs" when they talk about the oppression they face. Masculine intersex people are erased or told they should just be more feminine if they don't want people to be scared of them for looking masculine. People act like marginalised men (queer men, trans men, men of colour, etc, intersex men) aren't actually marginalised because they're men. The vocal "all men literally ARE evil" rhetoric isn't actually venting when it's constant and public, it's harming marginalised men and is a contributing factor to teens and young cis (often but not always het) going down the alt-right pipeline, and is directly linked with trans people not transitioning or being too scared to transition because by becoming a man they are becoming "the enemy". There's the idea of "women +" or "women and nonbinary," which positions all nonbinary people as 'basically women' or affiliated with femininity, and in practice ends up pushing away anyone who appears or identifies with masculinity, regardless of their gender identity. Butches are treated as if they're just sex toys, or that they're scary and dangerous because of their masc presentation. This is actually a huge, pervasive issue that is further hurting already marginalised people AND is pushing potential allies away because it's making them feel bad for something they can't control (being men.)

Dumbasses: lol op thinks cis men are oppressed by minorities

[soup-mother]

people aren't exactly fucking subtle with hating the black and brown strips on the progress flag huh?

like the point is to explicitly include people of colour in pride because of like you know...the massive fucking exclusion of people of colour in pride???

"they were already included" is really mixing up "should be" and"are" like it's the same shit as people acting like trans women have "always" been welcome in various spaces like it's just demonstrably not true. you can complain about not liking how it looks but bitching about the explicit inclusion of trans people and people of colour (two communities very much cast out of mainstream queer society) on a pride flag just makes you look like a massive cunt.

[tuttle-did-it]

@nosolaceofastraightanswer - saw your previous note in tag. You don't need to make a new post if you're worried about bothering me with your post. EVERYTHING you have added here is important and deserves to be seen. And I enjoyed reading your comments.

Blackman obliterated both Rita and Emmy's characters. Everything you've added above makes absolute sense. I'm not sure which woman he was retaliating against, but the more I rewatch the show, the more I wonder if he was retaliating against EVERYONE. Especially the women of colour in the show (and the writers who were just trying to give authenticity and consideration to their story-arcs.

He made Allison cross line after line in the previous season, made all the fans hate her by making her sexually assault Luther, betray everyone, kill Harlan and generally just be a ball of hatred to everyone and everything the entire season 3.

And then with season 4, they deprived her of any progress to move past that role, and erased Ray without a word. She did almost nothing of substance in this season except be there to cause tension between the other characters. The ONLY scene that showed her in an important scene was a CUT scene embracing Klaus when he's at an alcoholic support meeting.

Lila was criminally underused in the entire show. She became an appendage to Diego, and, like Allison, was just used to bring tension to the family and to throw in a sarcastic comment once or twice. This season, was used to help destroy not only her character, and Five, but the entire season as well. Her relationship with Five will be primarily what people remember this season, and it's so gross that Lila (and Five) have to wear that. Because it never should have happened.

Watching some of the interviews with the whole cast, it feels like several of them are trying really hard to spin it to keep a smile on. David Castañeda was clear about how he didn't approve of this final season. I hope the other actors, writers and crew feel safe speaking out about their experiences if they choose to do so. They deserve to be heard if they wish to speak out.

The more I think about these VARIED and MULTIPLE accusations against Blackman, the more I re-evaluate the entire series, and the more I can see the cracks within the entire show. And the more I have to wonder just what the fuck he was trying to accomplish this entire time with his transphobia, racism, sexism and general toxic gross behaviour.

If we don't keep these conversations going, people like this will continue to be platformed and in power. PLEASE continue the conversation here by adding more crucial context to what is happening. Please, let's recognise this fucking scumbag for what he is. Keep the conversation going. Get this piece of shit recognised for what he is.

Well. This explains a fuck of a lot, doesn't it?

A few highlights from the Rolling Stone link above:

"The sources and the HR complaint paint Blackman as a manipulative and chaotic showrunner who fostered a toxic workplace by pitting staffers against one another; creating an environment of fear and distrust; taking credit for other people’s work; and allegedly making lewd remarks that sources say they found to be sexist, homophobic, and transphobic. (Blackman’s behavior was also mentioned in two other complaints made by a writing-team member and an actress, Rolling Stone has learned.)"

“From the get-go, it was one of the worst jobs I’ve ever had in my life,” says a Season One source.

In text messages provided to HR, he wrote, “Elliot wants to come out as trans on the show. As Ivan. Oh my fucking God. Kill me now.” (Ivan is the formal name of Page’s character’s original name; the show ended up using the name Viktor instead.)

Throughout the show’s four seasons, sources claim to Rolling Stone, Blackman would make what they viewed as homophobic and transphobic comments, including juvenile and perverse commentary on individuals’ sexualities and wondering aloud about people’s anatomies. “He found it very funny, like the butt of a joke,” one says. Again, sources claim, Blackman was clever in the art of the spin, attempting to pass off inappropriate comments as harmless jokes and innocent questions.

“He could be very good at dropping something that starts to be transphobic or homophobic, like, ‘They’re a he/she,’” a second staffer says. “But then [he’ll say], ‘It’s all good, I support it. It’s awesome, live your best life.’ … He toes the line of seeing who will join in and laugh with him, and then if nobody does, really skillfully backpedals.”

Blackman would also make sexist, lewd, and disparaging comments, such as remarks about female staffers’ breast sizes and wondering aloud about their sexual proclivities, sources and the HR complaint claim.“She’s relentless,” Blackman allegedly texted one staffer about another, according to texts that were provided to HR in the complaint and reviewed by Rolling Stone. “I’m sure that’s good for certain things… but in the room it’s exhausting. But … the rack.” 

[leikeliscomet]

Asexual theory 101

Right I keep getting asked on most of my asexual posts 'What does this mean OP? Where's the sources?' so imma make a quick ace theory 101 post so if anyone says they don't get it I can say I tried. Let's go:

'What does being ace have to do with race/racism?/There's racism in the ace community???'

Pretty much everything as people of colour experience various forms of sexualisation and desexualisation at the same time, which is why POC are rarely included in asexual representation:

Asexuals of Color Still Seek to Validate Their Asexuality by Ebony Purks

Stereotypes & media about Black masculinity made it harder to come out as asexual by Tyger Songbird

Your Assumptions About Black Queer Masculinity Are Erasing My Asexual Identity by Timinepre Cole

It's Time To Start Celebrating Black Asexuality in Media By Tyger Songbird

Yasmin Benoit: ‘People had a hard time believing that I could be Black and asexual and at Pride’ by Alastair James

Brown and Gray: An Asexual People of Color Zine

'What do TERFS/transphobia have to do with asexuality?'

There's a growing TERF conspiracy theory that asexuality is the side-effect of transitioning. The LGB movement believes the community is exclusively for 'same-sex attracted persons' and so identities that don't involve attraction e.g. the TQIA should be removed. Most backlash towards Yasmin Benoit, aroace activist, is from white TERFs and conservatives:

Acephobic conspiracy theories have transphobic and fascist roots by Sherronda J Brown

'But how can conservatives hate asexuality if they hate sex?'

Because they don't and never did. If the term 'puritan' was used correctly in modern internet discourse, it would be known Christian puritans believe heterosexual sex for reproduction is a gift from god and mandatory so being asexual doesn't exactly fit with that worldview. Their beef is with any form of sex and sexuality that falls outside of cis heterosexual marriage, including asexuality. They're not anti sex but anti sexual autonomy:

"Anti-Sex" and the Real Sexual Politics of the Right by Lee Cicuta (ButchAnarchy)

The religious right is now targeting sexless marriages as “selfishness.” They Want to Ban Those Too by Tyger Songbird

Asexual people targetted by right-wing pundits following landmark report by Harriet Brewis

'What does being ace have to do with gender?'

It's commonly assumed that because patriarchy shames women's sexualities and considers all men's sexuality as biological and unavoidable, that ace women only and exclusively experience dsexualisation whilst ace men only and exclusively are pressured into being sexual beings. This can true as a broad overview but it can vary based on race, disability, class etc. This also becomes complex for asexuals that exist outside the gender binary. This is known as 'gender detachment'.

Impossible for Men, Unremarkable for Women by Canton Winer

My Work on Gender Detachment and Asexuality Strikes a Nerve by Canton Winer

'There's asexual studies now?'

Yup. On the general experiences of asexual people in the UK, including discrimination in education, the workplace and healthcare:

The National LGBT Survey (2018)

Ace in the UK Report (2023)

Specific names:

Asexual theorists: Ianna Hawkins, Michael Paramo, Julia Sondra Decker, Canton Winer (non-ace), Sherronda J Brown, Angela Chen

Asexual activists: Yasmin Benoit, Tyger Songbird, Marshall Blount (TheGentleAce), Kimberly Butler (TheAsexualGoddess)

And I'm gonna update this with more if they're worth adding. I don't wanna hear any excuses anymore or blame towards aces of colour, gay aces or trans aces for not being specific enough anymore. Read!

[gaynpc03]

Sending love to every single American who falls under "minority", and anyone who knows and supports those groups.

Women, children, the elderly, queer people, trans people, immigrants, people of colour, disabled people, neurodivergent people, the sick, the poor, the mentally ill...

Anyone who falls outside the "norm". Anyone who didn't vote for Trump.

I am so sorry.

The world is sorry.

Stay strong. The only way to change minds is to be here to change those minds. You have this. It's going to be a dreadful four years, but you are needed. Your future needs you. Your loved ones need you.

It's okay to panic and be scared. It's okay to cry. But keep getting up. Keep fighting the good fights, advocating for yourselves and others where it's safe to do so. Strength is never about how long you stand up for, it's how many times you fall and get back up again.

Sending all the love, hugs, strength and hope from Aotearoa / New Zealand.

[genderfluid-culture-iss]

Black genderfluid culture is looking up for representation and being like: “Why are you white? Where's my representativity, WHERE'S THE MFS THAT REPRESENT MY TRANSITION GOALS???”

I'm dead serious, the amount of times I looked for androgynous people for a lil reference (I need some visualization, long story short I'm using subliminals to get rid of gender dysphoria) and only white and sometimes east asian people popped up makes me mad because: Yo, why only the white enbies get their reference and representation? Why not me? Hm??

And that makes me feral, because the most queer representation, specially trans representation, we see is white. All white people, and that's infuriating because people of colour, trans women of colour, more specific, were a huge, HUGE, part of queer history, and y'all decide to simply ignore our voices? Really nigga? 🤨

Taking this opportunity on this black history month, I wanted to make a highly important request: Dear lgbtqia+ community: PLEASE HEAR COLOURED QUEER VOICES.

Sorry for the rant, I need to get that out. =3

no no you get it.

im white but we don’t talk about that lmao

in the past, A LOT of black folks did a LOT for this community. The fact that the face of the community is now a gay, cis, skinny white guy FUCKING SUCKS!

William Dorsey Swann and Marsha P. Johnson are just two of the names that SHOULD BE TALKED ABOUT MORE!

Please, support your POC girlies! (gender-neutral) This is such a big issue in the LGBTQ community and many others! And you’re right, there really aren’t ANY references for black LGBTQ people.

If anyone has any resources/photos or anything you’d like to share regarding this, please do!!

I’m also passionate about this if you couldn’t tell LMAO

[tommycorriander]

Hazbin Hotel, Helluva Boss, And Disability

I am disabled. This is something I've talked about a handful of times on this blog and on my Twitter, and anyone who knows me knows I am a disabled man. As a result, while I do enjoy dissecting media and politics, the need to be an advocate for disability issues would have fallen on me to some extent regardless. Disabled folks are often left out of conversations regarding diversity in media, in a continued oversight from able bodied peers.

What does this have to do with the Hellaverse?

Both shows contain at least some small amount of disability representation; specifically, they both have characters that are physically disabled. In Hazbin Hotel this is Vaggie, as she is missing an eye and prior to the finale had lost her wings. In Helluva Boss, the characters would be Fizzarolli, a quad amputee, and the unnamed deaf child in the special. The only character I ever see talked about in regards to their disability by the wider fanbase is the unnamed child, and on a smaller scale in critical spaces I occasionally see remarks on Fizzarolli's disability.

This is a problem.

For as much as fans of one or both shows would love to claim diversity in their shows, the lack of disability representation and the lackluster portrayal of the minimal representation is poor. And I haven't seen any of my fellow critics discuss this, which I feel is an oversight, though I don't fault them for this as there are many problems with both shows and they tend to have their hands full. However, this angle of viewing the shows has been overlooked, which is why I wish to discuss it today.

Firstly, I'd like to specify what I mean when I discuss disability. While the conversation regarding the Hellaverse is primarily centered around physical disability as this is the only form of disability portrayed in the shows, coded or otherwise, disability comes in many different forms. Intellectual disabilities and mental disabilities are just as important for representation in the media as physical disabilities. Among physical disabilities, there's also a difference in visible and invisible disabilities, the latter of which is hardly ever shown in media compared to the former. Ideally all forms of disability would be portrayed equally and with respect, but unfortunately this isn't the case. I also don't expect every show to tackle every demographic at once; this isn't a reasonable request, and to be very clear, my issue with the representation in HH/HB does not come from every single unique experience with disability not being covered, but rather with the narrative the creatives behind the show and the show's fans continue to push: that both shows are diverse and are, in some way, more progressive than other shows.

This isn't the case for many reasons. Fellow critics have gone into depth about the show's lack of representation of women in nuanced roles, the lack of queer women, the racist ways in which the very few characters of colour are presented, the lack of trans representation, and even the way sex and sexuality is presented being rather conservative at times. That isn't the focus of this essay, but I would implore anyone who is reading this who is somehow unaware of the previous issues to seek out essays that talk about those points; Cassidy Whiskey on YouTube has a three-part series that covers a multitude of topics, not just issues of representation, and I would have recommended helluvareceipts on Twitter, but her account has sadly been deactivated. I'm sure there are others, but I'll lose focus if I try to name every single person to go to. If you're willing to trawl through general pettiness in the critical tag (which, let's be real, that is probably how you found this post) you'll find well-worded critiques as well.

Back to the topic at hand. The lack of representation of people with disabilities is already frustrating, but there isn't a complete drought: Vaggie, Fizzarolli, and the unnamed imp child do exist, after all. However, their representation is not just flawed, but even exploitative in some ways.

First we have Vaggie. Aside from the visual of her missing eye and seeing the incident in which she lost that eye, nothing comes of it. She never has to contend with the difficulties that come with impaired sight, and it's never brought up by other characters. In the training scene between her and Carmilla, it's not a factor: instead, her greater flaw in the physical realm when it comes to combat is having longer hair. This is an extreme oversight, which I believe shows that Vivienne and the various writers for the show never actually take into consideration what should be a major element of a character, that being her impaired vision. Furthermore, the loss of her wings isn't even considered at all, with her somehow gaining them back at the end of her training montage with Carmilla. This could have been an excellent vector to discuss physical disability in a coded form, with her wings being a stand in for more traditional forms of limb loss. Still not ideal, as I believe it's better to have forthright depictions of disability over metaphors, but it would have been something. Instead, it's never a factor, and worse, it's effectively cured. As far as representation goes, Vaggie might as well not even count.

That's all that exists for Hazbin Hotel. In Helluva Boss, we have two characters, and I will save the unnamed child for last, because that is where the real issue with the representation is on full display.

So, Fizzarolli. He is a quad amputee and potentially hearing impaired, though the latter is speculated on due to a single scene which I discuss later. Since that scene is the only time it ever comes up, I will focus on his amputee status. He lost his limbs in a fire, something we see on screen. I will disagree with some of my fellow critics in that this scene should have been more detailed; I feel that had the scene shown more of the damage dealt to Fizz's body it would have come across in poor taste, and focusing on the tragic aspect of disability usually ends up feeling like trauma porn in the hands of poor writers, which Vivienne most certainly is. I do not trust her to handle a more detailed scene with grace, especially given her track record (more on that later). It is ultimately for the best that the scene is mostly brushed over, even if it would have been better in the hands of someone with the maturity and sensitivity to cover such a topic for more to be shown in regards to his injuries.

Otherwise, Fizzarolli is mostly fine. He's shown not just surviving but thriving, he has a loving partner (criticisms of the portrayal of said relationship not withstanding) and generally sees success in his life while still having to grapple with the realities of his disability when it comes to his prosthetics being prone to damage and potentially shutting down. I would, in the hands of anyone else, like to see more of this character and what his daily routine looks like as a disabled man.

Unfortunately all the good will built with Fizz comes crashing down when we get to the unnamed imp child in the Fizzarolli special episode. This child is the poster child for virtue signalling. Frankly, it's disgusting how a majority of the fandom seemed to ignore how fetishistic this portrayal was. This is where the real meat of the essay comes in to play.

This unnamed child is given a single scene, and is then promptly forgotten about and never mentioned again. They are introduced as being a fan of Fizz here to view the competition, there is a brief exchange between the two, and then we all move on. And yet this scene was championed as somehow revolutionary or a sign of the top-tier diversity and progressiveness in Helluva, when in reality this type of scene has been done to death. This is tokenism.

One major stumbling block many of the people championing this scene seem to get tripped up on is a very simple question: why was this child a child to begin with? Really, this seems like a simple question, it shouldn't have much thought. Sometimes characters are kids. But within the episode it's clearly shown through multiple different avenues that this is an adult show. The performances are dripping with sexuality, several of the fans of Fizzarolli are there because Mammon sells sex robots of the guy, there is no mistaking that this is something no child should be at, let alone by themselves.

So why was this child a child? Simple: brownie points.

It's a lot more difficult for people to share clips of a wholesome moment from your show if the person Fizz was interacting with was an adult. People are ableist, this is pretty par for the course; as a disabled person I find it generally safer to assume people are ableist before proven otherwise. I can guarantee if this scene were to be between Fizzarolli and a deaf adult fan as opposed to a young child, it would not have been championed as this amazing representation by mostly able bodied fans. And that is by design: if Vivienne genuinely cared about representation, if she truly wanted to show something meaningful to her adult fans in her adult show, she would have had the interaction be with an adult. But that doesn't get her clip shared around on social media. That doesn't get her brownie points for inclusion. It's safe, it's palatable, it's sickeningly wholesome, and it's insulting for that. This is a show for adults, something Vivienne and company is adamant on, and yet they treat their audience like children. As a fan, you should be insulted to have this key-jingling one minute clip presented to you. You should demand more, demand better.

Unfortunately I do not see ever getting better from Vivienne. She has made it very clear she truly does not care about creating art, she really only stumbled into being championed as a paragon for animation because her majority white and able bodied fans saw the inclusion of primarily gay men and thought that was good enough. She does not give a damn about disabled people, and she never will. To expect good disabled representation from her is like expecting good queer representation from a Marvel movie; she is in it for the money, and it just so happens that the inclusion of that scene makes money.

Addendum thoughts that were too long to put into the tags: I would like to make it clear that disability, because it presents very differently, is experienced very differently by many different people. If you felt seen or represented by the disability representation in either show, that's fine, and I don't want you to feel bad for feeling seen. Ultimately disabled people are largely given scraps; I have not once seen someone with my particular physical disability portrayed in media. Sometimes we latch onto things that are subpar or lacking; my criticism of reception to this scene is targeted primarily at able bodied audience members who may be lacking in this perspective and to also champion fellow disabled people to rightfully demand and expect better. Thank you for your time.

[trans-axolotl]

"Recounting this brief historical account alongside Semenya's sex-testing controversy draws attention to the way that the spectre of supposed degenerate genital and sexual ambiguity was, and remains to be, imagined and constructed by colonial and imperial forces across gender, racial, national, and geographical lines. The spectre of intersex has been and continues to be used as a colonial and imperial tool with which to classify racialized women and nations as suspicious, threatening Others in order to justify various forms of violence. Addressing the history of the construction of genital "ambiguity" underscores the fact that race and nation play a significant role in determining which body-minds are labelled sexually "ambiguous" or disorder, where the spectre supposedly haunts, and how citizenship statuses and nations are admonished (Magubane 2014). This history reveals how various forms of oppression literally and symbolically converge on and shape certain people's body-minds and nations. It contextualizes the violence enacted on Semenya--and other Black women athletes--and demonstrates the institutionalized violence that these athletes endured, and continue to endure.

...By exploiting and imposing Western notions of sex, gender, femininity, masculinity, pathology, and DSD, sport sex testing is used as a tool with which to limit, control, and impose sexual citizenship, intersex citizenship, or, if intersex is understood to be a disability, disability citizenship. Analyzing how the phantom is currently imagined to reside in women athletes of colour in colonized nations of the Global South also reveals that sex testing is used as a racist, colonial, imperial tool. And, it must be noted, this violent tool has always been used on already marginalized people: intersex, trans, racialized, queer, and colonized individuals and women. The fact that sex testing needs to be abolished is clear. Doing so would constitute a necessary decolonizing and anti-discriminatory undertaking. I endorse immediately scrapping all sex-testing policies and creating new policies that reject future sex-testing proposals and protect athletes from intersecting forms of discrimination."

-Cripping Intersex, pg 172-174, Celeste Orr

[queerasfact]

Happy birthday Sylvia Rivera!

Born on 2 July 1951, Sylvia Rivera was an activist in New York City for over thirty years, fighting in particular for people who she felt were left behind by the gay rights movement: trans people, queer people of colour, and queer people living on the streets.

In 1970, along with fellow activist Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia founded STAR - the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries - which aimed to provide food, housing, legal aid, and other necessities to homeless trans youth.

Sylvia herself was assigned male at birth, but around age eleven, in the presence of a large group of friends she had met living on the street, she was rechristened by a Pentecostal minister as Sylvia. She had relationships with both men and women, and said late in life: “I’m tired of living with labels. I just want to be who I am. I am Sylvia Rivera.”

[orthopunkfox]

Being queer and a Christian is often very difficult. I experience alienation from both sides. Often these two parts of myself feel impossible to reconcile. But, I want to share something beautiful that my priest does that nearly makes me weep every time. The Orthodox Church is not known for its inclusivity or progressiveness. It is ancient and its gears turn slowly. During Holy Communion, those who are not confirmed members of the Church may come forward for a blessing. The blessing is done by gender.

"The servant of God [Name] is blessed..." for men,

"The handmaid of God [Name] is blessed..." for women.

The first time I went up for a blessing, I was hesitant. My gender is no secret and I do not try to hide my queerness. Which blessing would I receive? With sadness, I concluded the priest would do what was simplest and default to my assigned gender.

I stood before him and bowed my head, arms crossed over my (noticeably growing) chest. He raised the golden chalice over my head and lovingly said:

"The beloved of God Quinn is blessed, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen "

He has done this ever since and with this simple action, preaches one of the main, if oft forgotten pillars of Orthodoxy: It does not matter who you are, what pronouns you use, what colour your hair is, what clothes you wear, what mistakes you've made, what trials you have overcome, where you came from or where you are. You are beloved of God just as you are. You are created in the Image of God and are a sacred vessel of beauty, and there is a place for you here.

This is true inclusivity. Not the white liberal veneer placed on so many churches where the cishet, boomer congregation pats themselves on the back for the rainbow flag outside while actively misgendering the trans person sitting in the pew. My priest has not given any big speeches talking about how everyone is loved here. He doesn't have to. His genuine kindness and that of my fellow parishioners are the only sermon marginalised people need to hear. In these moments, the two parts of myself become one and I truly believe that the God I love delights in me.