BY TIFFANY MOTT-SMITH
Tagg Magazine
I moved to Washington, D.C., with a plan: First, find the queer “grrls.” Second, roll around in the safe spaces. Instead, I found that my new community’s safe spaces were unsafe in their own ways. The separation was glaring. When I began to invite people to events, I immediately received responses like these: “That place is racist, and I don’t go where I’m not wanted,” and “They don’t like trans dudes there.” Other times, I would hear, “That event is only for queers with money, sweetheart.”
To my dear fellow queers and future lovers: Get. It. Together. Love one another more. Trust one another more. Respect one another more. Show up to the spaces you are nervous about and welcome the people you aren’t used to seeing. We are black, white, brown, red, yellow, Catholic, atheist, working class, hipster, union, yuppie, vegan, nerdy, punk, natural haired, quick weaved, trans, femme, butch, conservative, progressive, socialist, anarchist, liberal — the list goes on and on. But most important, we are queer, and that trumps everything.
