Welcome back to the Q Season 5 People!!!! It is our one year anniversary season and we are gonna ease back into things this time around. I'm going to be moving in a few weeks so this season might get a little crazy but for this episode I'm just gonna coast through and discuss one of the things I've beeen working on BTS for pushing myself forward and how I stay motivated.

If you are new to the community or you're just looking for queer spaces that offer inclusion, acceptance and/or the chance to create a chosen family the resources discussed in this episode will be for you. There will also be some resources in here for allies of the community who want to educate themselves about the community and be better advocates and activists for the community.

Chances are you know someone in the community. If you don't that could mean you've been deemed unsafe to come out to or you just hang in really specific circles which begs the question -- do you care about people in the community. If you don't thats your choice but if you do and you find that nothing in your life represents that or let's people know that this episode is for you. Allies are needed in order to help things become more normalized and for equity rights and fairness across the board.

There's so much drama in the LGB and it's super hard to identify as T but somehow someway the ignorance of y'all who gatekeep are messing up my day. May I offer some advice from the Ace kid, be accepting of every name, label and ID people choose to utilize for themselves. It's bad enough we have to deal with stigma from other non-queer folks, we don't need it from anywhere else. Just saying 🤷🏾 *sometimes in the audio my voice cuts out so I apologize if anything sounds super off I didn't have time to re-record and I miscounted episodes previously this is episode 42 not 44*

Being queer is not just about being queer. We all are more than our orientations, presentation and what's below our waistline. When we say we are loud and proud we mean that applies to all facets of our identity which can include race, religion, gender, sex orientation, our professions, our identity as parents, siblings, children, and more. We are not defined by just one part of our lives and this episode is about all the ways those things can intersect.

How many ways do you feel attracted to someone? Is there just romance and sex with partners and are friendships always really just friendships? The split attraction model gives an a nice foundation for why the answers to those questions are no and just how many ways attraction can be expressed in any relationship you have.

Allow me to reintroduce myself. I am an out, loud and proud black androgynous cisgender kinky hetero-romantic asexual named Qi. This episode is going to be about my queer journey so far and what I hope to continue learning along the way. Please remember my experience is just one of many and not all queer people have experienced the same things.

Happy Pride Month Folx! This episode we will learn the beginnings of the LGBTQIA+ communities. If you don't know Pride started with a riot led by the trans community and we graciously thank them for their service and their sacrifices so that we could have the established/growing queer communities we have today.

Anyone who watched Grey's Anatomy knows that towards karev's end on the show when Jo went into treatment, he kept focusing on how he didn't need/want any more crazy romantic interests. But he stuck around and he married her and then he left her for the ultimate crazy interest he had had since the beginning of the show. The irony is definitely not lost there. But what is crazy? Is crazy actually a term we want to be using to describe not only our loved ones but ourselves or the people we interact with everyday. Language is always the staple of societal norms and mental health is no different. We need to end the stigma against mental health especially given all the talk the pandemic has placed on mental health and how those services saw a growth in utilization probably more than ever.

TW: this episode will use heavy direct language about domestic, sexual, physical, emotional/psychological abuse across platforms and institutions as well as from an individual perspective. This country was built on generations of trauma. If that doesn't make you uncomfortable I'm not sure what will but trauma is something that affects us on so many levels not just a global one. Although trauma most commonly happens on an individual or community level it stems from the global infrastructure that it is encased in.