15 May Queer As Folk – Jordan Platt Written Piece
With the Stonewall school report of 2017 stating that only 3% of LGBT youth have received a queer history education, and as a queer man, and one who’s struggled with his own identity in a world obsessed with social norms and fitting in, it’s time to have a discussion about queer identity, and how the system knows nothing.
You see, I’ve cracked the goddamn code. It’s okay to be different.
But be warned, being different in a way that society doesn’t accept, or understand, comes with a whole hell of a lot of issues, especially coming from a working-class background, and being raised on a council estate in South Manchester. During my teen years there was s a lack of LGBT+ representation, and education, that I suffered with my mental health – like most queer folk.
It took a therapist (thanks NHS, you’re a gem), our community, and a hell of a lot of googling in order for me to discover who I was. I wasn’t gay or straight. I wasn’t bisexual, because I didn’t find women sexually attractive without an emotional connection. I didn’t fit into a neatly designed box that told the world ‘this is who I am’, so I was subject to judgment, and constantly having to explain to people I encountered how I presented myself. It was insufferable, to a point where I’d just give in and tell everyone I was gay. It was easier – simpler.
Let me lay it out for you. I’m sexually attracted to men, but can be emotionally attracted to any gender; any individual.
There isn’t a box in which I place myself to limit who I can love and when, and it took me hitting my early 20’s, moving to London and finding my ‘tribe’ to realise it. There doesn’t have to be a set-in stone way to be, or to feel. You don’t have abide by the already established labels within our society. You just don’t.
It’s scary when you’re stuck in a place where you strongly believe that society’s hold over its people is just too much to tackle, so you don’t. You sink into the background and fit the mould that other people have made for you, but why? What’s the point?
You’re told constantly as a child, as a teen and as an adult, that you have one life to live, so live it wisely, and for me, conforming isn’t wise. It’s the exact opposite. Change doesn’t come about when no one stands up and says change is needed.
So you know that mould I was talking about? Break it. Smash it. Set it on fire. Get goddamn rid of it, because it’s holding you back.
Like the great philosopher, and supermodel, RuPaul said, ‘if you can’t love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?’ Can I get an amen?
