Lent 2022 - Week 4 Tuesday

Week 4 – Tuesday
Releasing Internalized Oppression
Fear of judgement or worse if you are publicly you.

Internalized Oppression is: Being afraid to hold your partner’s hand in public for fear of being judged.

It’s that feeling that being queer is not “normal” so you’re uncomfortable showing affection to your partner in public - in the same ways heterosexual people do all the time.

You might justify this feeling by saying, “It’s no one’s business” or “I don’t want to flaunt my sexuality”. Yet you don’t think heterosexuals are flaunting their sexuality when they hold hands in public or demonstrate affection with a hug or kiss.

Silence it: Redefine “normal” and accept yourself as “normal”.
Or just kick normal to the curb because it’s a social construct that’s highly subjective.
And, sometimes, “normal” feels super boring – LOL.

As a queer person, there will be situations in which your safety is at risk and you will make decisions to protect yourself and that is totally legit. I’m talking about situations in which your safety is not at risk and you just feel uncomfortable because your queerness is not the “norm” and you fear being judged because of it.

Part of that fear is coming from the fact that YOU are judging your queerness.
THAT’S WHAT WE WANT TO RELEASE!

We are not flawed because we’ve internalized oppression.

When you see negative messages about queer people in the media or…
Your relatives openly condemn “Uncle Johnny” for being queer or…
The message from the pulpit on Sunday is that God hates queers and they’re all going to hell…

Well, it’s hard NOT to internalize those messages…especially if you heard them as a child. When you’re a kid, you just soak up everything as if it’s true and then you carry that baggage with you into adulthood.

We all have oppressive baggage to release. Let’s support each other in releasing it.

Let me know what you think in the comments.
Have you ever been nervous about showing affection to your partner in public?
Do you still feel that way?