By Alex Hawgood — 2019
The reality-show star says he’s living with H.I.V., and speaks about being an addict and a sexual abuse survivor.
Read on www.nytimes.com
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Out pro wrestler Logan Black found the response to his coming out ‘overwhelming in the best way.’
In the beginning, it was difficult to let myself rest, even with the ultimate doctor’s note. I felt like I still had to push past my (extremely limited) capabilities. I had to practice slowing down and allowing my frailties to become visible even when I had the choice to hide them.
A three-time U.S. champion in figure skating, Eliot Halverson is Colombian-born, was adopted and raised by a white Minnesotan family and is transgender non-binary.
At 25, Harnaam Kaur holds the world record as the youngest woman to have a full beard. For years, she was bullied. Now she’s an Instagram star.
When I told my family I was trans, one of their initial reactions was, “But you’re so hairy! It’s going to be so difficult to remove all your hair to be a woman, so you should just give up.” They were zeroing in on my body hair as the barrier for me to be seen as feminine.
One of life’s paradoxes is that we are encouraged to “be ourselves,” but are often punished when we do.
For LGBTQ youth in particular, the Internet can be a refuge—a safe place to feel less alone. For queer youth to feel normal, they need to see, read and hear the voices of others who look like them and use the same identifying labels.
“Representation and visibility is given to us by larger power structures, but what do we give ourselves? I’m more interested in that. What questions are we asking ourselves to grow and heal? To challenge the ways this world constantly teaches us to hate ourselves?”
What it’s like coming out as a black man when people see it as a ‘white thing.’
Creating spaces where the need to assimilate, conform, and belong are no longer important
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