Rain Dove Dubilewski Instagram – This ended really well, even though I was told by quite a few it was a bad idea.
I waited two years to post this because I wanted to respect the clean up process from the wildfires and not capitalize on my own narrative when the focus really needed to be on the communities that lost everything.
Why didn’t I just come out loud and proud as all/no gender and queer? Well, based on research from reading message boards and chatting with some other locals prior, the sentiment around LGBTQ (especially trans, non-binary and queer identifying people) was that they were a threat from city living culture causing a mental health crisis in young people. I knew if I just bulled my way in, identity first, I would immediately get stonewalled (pun intended). And being blocked out wouldn’t allow me to contribute to furthering the dialogue, nor would it make me safe- and to be fair it wouldn’t make them feel safe either. So, even though there were some afab people doing the manual labor, the majority were cis men who preferred to work in private groups to “get more accomplished”. And they felt they owed it to the fire ravished community to provide the most efficient service hence the segregation. A lot of people also felt that all LGBTQ people had to offer was their identity. So my goal was to get on the exclusive group, be safe, relate, and then shift stereotype/bias by simply being vs preaching.
Why was this important? Well the community genuinely needed help, so that was first. But also, a lot of LGBTQPIA individuals come from rural communities. And all their parents know about us is what they see on TV which is often sexual, violence, or suffering. This leads to them sheltering their kids or “trying to protect them from a cruel fate” by openly admonishing queer individuals. My goal here was to have a positive experience and show that our community cares deeper than it’s given credit for.
What do You think about rural community bias? How can we help? Where would You volunteer if safety, money & time werent an issue?
PS: I was already in Australia for work. I didn’t fly across the ocean to do this.
#lgbtqia #lovewins #reels #documentary #australia #genderqueer | Posted on 02/Feb/2022 00:50:53
