Identities and Communities
Because at the end of the day, it is a self-journey.
What we really need is community that supports—understanding, acceptance, kindness, and gentle guiding when needed, a helping hand in providing otherwise obscure resources, and reiterating the first few because we need to feel safe in order to have room to self explore, to grow in our understanding of the self.
Judgement from external source is not only unhelpful, it is pointless, and it is definitely not anyone but one’s own job/responsibility to make that call and decide. Because suddenly people can literally feel what we feel? I don’t think so. Even if one happens to be an empath, it is still filtered through one’s lens.
But keeping our own minds open and on the look out is equally important. Because again, it is our own responsibility for the matter of self-discovery. And do not onto others what we would not wish onto ourselves.
So yes, it’s not about validity community culture, and definitely not about gatekeeping culture. It’s about having compassion.
Also respectability politics can suck it. Who are anyone trying to appease really? Too busy punching at fellow [people who could/are like you but in different perspectives] is fracturing your own potential support system.
