[Image Description: Screenshots of a series of tweets by a user named @valeriehalla that read
ok: i’m scared to exist online right now, even in what we should be able to consider safe spaces for queer folks
i’m scared because we are all watching continually as more and more of us are violently picked off and destroyed
by other queer folks, and by people who claim to be sympathetic to us, utilizing the same rhetoric that should be helping and empowering us
the word “discourse”, at this point, is only ever used sarcastically and with a kind of quiet dread by my friends
we joke about being problematic, but me, my peers and maybe you too, live in a state of constant low anxiety
over the fact that we don’t get second chances to make mistakes. if you’re a queer person of any kind of visibility, it’s one and done
the well of patience and compassion runs deep for our cis/straight allies, and we reserve NOTHING for ourselves
this is assuming you even make a mistake. we target each other for complete bullshit just as often
weeks ago i was chased off twitter for using the word “queer”, before that i was getting death threats over fabricated purity politics
friends of mine have been targeted with callout posts over things they didn’t do or for weird fandom drama with zero material impact
i’m not trying to absolve any of us of guilt. we’ve all done and will do wrong things, we’ll hurt each other, again and again
it’s easy, because we’re all a little bit fucked up over here. we’re carrying wounds we’re weird, we’re not always presentable
but that’s exactly why we need patience and compassion for each other more than anything else
because those wounds make it so easy for us to destroy eachother, and some of y'all may be tempted
it’s easier. when it’s some 20-something queer artist struggling to meet half the poverty line, it’s easy to run them off for hurting you
i GET why it’s tempting for some folks, because this is power that you can exert, a situation you can change
when we’re all so tired and so used to being powerless
but please understand that the folks you’re targeting may not come back from it. they may not ever come back. it’s happened, it will happen
when you mark someone as unsaveable and irredeemable in the only space they have to exist in, they can’t exist anymore
dededos
kianamaiart
izzy806
blakekathryn
