Lifes Good, Gods Better

Mental Wealth Month

...because mental health is wealth!

Mental Health Awareness Month is happening right now. We all know that mental health isn’t just about therapy. Sometimes it’s about checking out for a bit, moving your body, or chit-chat with like minds. One of the biggest barriers to proper mental healthcare is not having the funds for it. This Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re teaming up with four partners to bring you a wealth of mental well-being services and support, as well as some good energy and deep vibes, here on @postitforward:

Explore online kindness and self-care with Trill

Learn about burnout with Shine

Find calm in our curated collection from Headspace

Experience grassroots growth and healing with Free Black Therapy

Interacting with them is cool and having them at pride I'm not opposed to but as a person who's queer it does feel like they're kinda dressing it up

. . . was? And just took a while to figure themselves out?

People do not, as a general rule, do things that’ll make their lives harder and subject to more discrimination.

Right. You haven’t. Because in spite of what gatekeeper types on tumblr will try to convince you, they do not exist. No one outside of tumblr ever comes in pretending to be queer when they’re not. It’s actually NOT something that’s going to give you any kind of advantage, and even on tumblr, where someone might do it for clout...so? As mentioned above, people who say they want to be something usually are and haven’t accepted/realized it yet. And people who want to do it maliciously don’t need the word “queer” to do so. Our hypothetical infiltrators would probably find it easier to infiltrate our spaces with less controversial terminology. 

Non-queer parents taking their child to a local LGBTQIA+ meetup should be allowed to stay, even if they don’t understand everything, they are learning for the sake of their kid and showing support for their kid by being there.  Non-queer partners coming with their queer partner to a LGBTQIA+ events should be welcome. Why should a queer person be forced to come to an event alone because their partner isn’t also queer? Why should we strip them of their personal supports to gain community access?

Non-queer caregivers/assistants helping their queer disabled client navigate the LGBTQIA+ spaces and help with accessibility concerns should be allowed to stay. Curious straight folks who want to learn to be better at supporting their LGBTQIA+ community members should be allowed in our spaces. 

Folks who think they are straight coming into the space as allies also sometimes learn they are not actually straight after all once they learn more about our communities and the who spectrum of queerness because their conception of ‘not straight’ was too narrow before.  Sure there are some events where non-queer folks should either not be present or not speak up if they are present. Like if the space is having a group therapy session, disabled queer folks may still need someone to assist them and should be allowed to bring along their support but the non-queer person just shouldn’t talk about their problems at the session or try to fix the issues others bring up.

But that doesn’t mean every queer space, every event, needs to bar non-queer folks from even being present. 

Allies are welcome even if the A doesn’t stand for ally because allies are not the problem. People who want to learn, who want to be better, or who are supporting someone else, don’t need to be kicked out. 

Bigots, people who refuse to learn, people who are actively harming others in the space, people who cause trouble, or who have malicious intent should be kicked out, absolutely.

But all non-queer folks? That feels like a quick way to alienate not only our community from the rest of society but also individual queer folks from either the larger queer community and/or their own personal supports who happen to be not queer.

Because what rule do you set?

That couple that looks straight? One or both could be bi. One or both could be trans/NB.

That single person could be bi, trans, NB, ace or aro...