#successfulcommunication

[valeriemacleod]

Don't kill the messenger!

[ceeceeistired]

Last year I was friends with a coworker who during a convo on him dealing with racist shit and me dealing with heteronormative crap he used the term “homosexuals” - cut to that crawling feeling in my gut as the term makes me think of “...will burn in hell fires.” Being part of a fairly queer friend group in college I was thrown for a loop for a good beat. Later that day I told him that “the homosexuals” is highly cringe worthy (no one’s wondering if it’s okay for the heterosexuals to eat in our restaurants, live in our apartment buildings, be prominently shown in all over the billboards and the movies .... well except rainbow nation). He asked what word I’d prefer and I said I use “queer,” “LGBTQIA community,” “rainbow community,” or “the community” referring to the last two options. Post-convo 2 awesome results: 1) Open convo with dear friend leaving space for more convos 2) Whenever he says “the community” I always imagine he’s using a Don Corleone voice and is referring to the group behind the #gayagenda