Iowa Queer Communities of Color Coalition celebrates coming out day and LGBTQ History Month
My name is Jeanina and I am a mixed race chicana who identifies as queer.
I struggled most of my life living between many different worlds; I was not Latina enough, white enough, straight enough, gay enough. I bent and broke my body trying to fit into this rigid plane of existence, looking for a space that would see all the unique parts of me as one entirely whole person rather than a pile of mismatched puzzle pieces.
In the LGBTQ community, I struggled with being accepted as bisexual and in my Latinx community, I struggled to be accepted as Mexican. White people would tell me, “I can tell you are something else,” and, at one time, it was out of the question for me to talk to people about racial and sexual identity in a serious, fluid, and dynamic way. If I am being perfectly honest, I have felt profound loneleness in these White cisgender spaces I find myself in but I am on a path of both healing and action. I am establishing boundaries within my daily life and I am committing to being a better advocate by learning how to utilize the privileges I have been given.
For the first time, I know who I am and I’m ready to put that power to good use.
Photo Credit: Jami Milne
Post courtesy of Iowa Queer Communities of Color Coalition
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