“Being queer saved my life. Often we see queerness as deprivation. But when I look at my life, I saw that queerness demanded an alternative innovation from me. I had to make alternative routes; it made me curious; it made me ask, ‘Is this enough for me?’”
―Ocean Vuong
“Being queer pushed me to be my best because I didn’t want to be anything other than that for the people who have come before me”
― Andrew Gelwicks
“Queer' not as being about who you're having sex with (that can be a dimension of it); but 'queer' as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and that has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live.”
―bell hooks
Queer joy is about freedom. It is about standing on the shoulders of giants, about knowing our queerstory, about believing in our power. Queer joy embraces the challenge and brilliance and creativity of non-conformity. It centers solidarity and shows up for our siblings at the margins. Queer joy recognizes and elevates mutual aid and community care as essential and holy work. Queer joy is about our stories, our voices, our knowledge.
In medicine and public health, queer joy can look like:
Centering research conducted by and for queer and trans people
Separating queer/trans identities and experiences from pathology
Focusing on stories of queer and trans thriving, rather than just disparities and inequities
Naming the ways systems benefit from our oppression, and our resistance and persistence
Exploring the rich history of queer and trans clinicians (physicians, nurses, PAs, social workers)
Critiquing the subtle and overt ways health sciences training perpetuates cis- and hetero-sexism
“But I will reiterate that I think queer people are magic, and I do want to have it both ways. I’m very like, Love is love, let’s have all the rights. Let’s have all of the options and opportunities and flexibility that are afforded straight people. Let’s be protected and let’s be like everyone else. And there’s this kind of radical and contrarian part of me that’s like, No. Fuck that, we’re not like them. We are different, and arguably better. I don’t want what makes us different and special to be eroded in our continued quest for equality. Fiercely protecting and celebrating what is special and distinct and unique about queer people as a whole is super-important. And they’re not mutually exclusive. I think we can have both.”
― Andrew Gelwicks
“Who knows what the future holds? We should not hold ourselves back for the sake of convention. Instead, we should embrace ongoing transformation as a necessary part of what it means to be alive… Over time, I learned that where I was taught dissonance, I found harmony.”
― Alok Vaid-Menon
“During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night, and it was the dance that kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for.”
– Dan Savage
“A trans person is not a mistake; it’s a calling… Transition is about becoming more of yourself. This is the clay I was given. Now, create.”
―Anjelica Ross