We didn’t feel it was appropriate to debate anything in light of LGBTQ+ history month this edition, since the rights of this community have been contested for years. With that said, we have gathered some of your experiences as an LGBTQ+ person in order to create a Big Collaboration that is filled with love and support.
Words by the Sussex Community
Tamsin Archer
Opening your heart to loving yourself and other people! being gentle and kind with how you treat yourself and others, accepting people for who they are! Love is love.
Linnea
I’m not apart of the community but I’m proud to live in a time where you can be unapologetically yourself and I’m so proud of everyone that does just that!
Anonymous
Being part of a community that accepts people regardless of how they dress, who they like or anything else.
Coming out a year ago, I didn’t realise how good it would feel to be surrounded by people who also didn’t have a boy to talk about when all your friends discussed their crushes at school. Or how it feels to be surrounded by loads of other same sex couples and it just be natural.
Cameron Diver
To me. It’s means that we can stand together and say that everything is ok. Being in the world where some people look at you different makes you seriously contemplate how to live your life as a gay man (like myself) and the same for others in the LGBTQ+ community. Having people around you who are also in the community really opens your eyes to how lovely and wholesome being part of this community means, even when you have such deep rooted hatred surrounding you by your internal thoughts and others around you. I value this community so much and it has taught me so much about being myself and how I choose to perceive myself to the outside world. I still have a long way to come, but slowly, I am becoming me.
Beth Brown
As a bisexual woman, for a long time I thought I could just ‘go under the radar’: date a nice guy and never have to deal with my bisexuality. Not that I thought my family or friends would be unsupportive, it just seemed like a lot of hassle to confront that part of myself.
Fast forward to starting university and I debated establishing my sexuality from the beginning. A fresh start blah blah blah…. I chickened out and continued publicly identifying as straight. It wasn’t until I joined a friend to a queer event that I felt super uncomfortable being the ‘straight friend’ he had brought along. So, I finally told my university friends! Hooray!
Then, in what I assume was drunk guilt, I came out to my mum after a night out when visiting home for the holidays. I have no idea what I said or how I said it. But at least it allowed me to be more honest and enjoy my sexuality! The truth always gets out eventually I guess!
Ali
The LGBT Community is found family.
Stevie Palmer
To me, it’s a found freedom. It’s the ability to be yourself and have others see you in all your beauty and accept you anyway. It’s the strength to stand up on days you feel alone and down, it’s the strength to keep going when you feel so othered; it’s knowing that you aren’t alone. It’s the kindest, sweetest and most gentle love one can ever feel. It’s smooth like the rippling of a silk sheet and gentle as a feathered touch. It’s accepting, encompassing and whole. It’s a safety net for expression and creativity. It’s choosing love first, always.
To everyone who sees me and accepts me for all my quirky queer ways, thank you.
Kate
Inclusivity, community, a space for freedom and expression.
Anonymous
From an outside perspective, the community represents love, compassion, freedom and empathy.
Photo credit: Law Society of Scotland
