On April 21st, Nathan "Seven" Scott, a prominent LGBT activist, passed away. I did not know Nathan personally, but I am a big fan of his work!. I love his "We are the Media (WATM) videos. It brought the black gay male perspective on a variety of issues. Unfortunately, Nathan took his own life on April 21st. One of the reasons that he cited about taking his own life was loneliness. Unfortunately, this has also been the reason why other LGBT activist have also taken their lives.
Once again, I want to make it clear that I did not know Nathan personally, so I don't want to speak directly for him or any of the other LGBT activists we have lost and whose work I admire. However, I do want to talk about the high costs of being an LGBT activist.
I consider myself to be an LGBT activist. In identifying myself as such, that means that I advocate and point out the injustices faced by the LGBT community and support efforts to increase the protections, benefits, and inclusion of the LGBT community in all spheres of our society. However, in doing this work, there is a high cost.
Checking my Privileges
Before I continue, I want to be sure to check my privileges. I think it is very important to check your privileges because it helps to situate your positionality and abilities. It is important for everyone to realize that our privileges enable us to do things that others cannot. By checking our privileges we understand our own position in society and we can arrive at a greater understanding of others in our society who do not share our privileges and bring them into new spaces where their voices can be heard and situated centrally!
I am a cisgender male. Therefore, I have male privilege. As such, my voice is often considered more than my transgender and female counterparts. I also have able privilege. I am not disabled which means that my voice is often considered above my disabled brothers and sisters. Also, my ableness provides me the mobility to be able to do certain things that others may not be able to. I also have educational privilege. I was able to attend multiple universities and receive multiple degrees and this has afforded me access to privileges that others unfortunately may not have access to for a variety of factors. The educational privileges of being degreed at the Masters level affords me the privilege of having my voice considered in ways that others who may have a better knowledge, awareness, and understand but because they are not educationally credentialed are not taking equally as my own.
It is important that I identify these privileges so that you know where I am coming from but also for society to take note about how our voices are considered and the need for invitation to increase the inclusion and consideration of other voices.
The High Cost of Being an LGBT Activist
LGBT activism is not a high paying endeavor. Most people who are apart of the LGBT movement are not paid for their advocacy work. They often have to work a primary job to be able to sustain themselves and also support their activism efforts. If they do not have a steady job, they have to be supported in other ways to be able to advocate for our community. Therefore, if you are not apart of a large national organization with large resources, you are often funding your activism through your own resources and the resources of your supporters.
As we all know it is hard getting through life if we are unsupported. Without support it is hard to continue on with our work. It is especially hard for independent activists because they are having to balance their own personal needs with the needs of the community and utilizing their own resources to effect the change that we want to see.
Also, they bear the brunt of the attacks that we see from the opposition to equality. Our independent activists are attacked through the defamation and negativity by the opposition and even within our own communities. This negativity has caused us to loose many of our champions for equality and leaves us with a deficit.
Therefore, it is important that we support our independent activists. Given them encouragement to continue to fight in ways that we choose not to. Support them financially and emotionally. Utilize your resources to aide them in their important work. By doing so, you are contributing to the movement and advocating for your own rights.
So today, I mourn for Nathan "Seven" Scott and the countless others we have lost in LGBT movement to a lack of support. I also reaffirm my commitment to our independent, on the ground activists, whose actions are effecting the change we want to see in our communities and our world.
Please support our brothers and sisters who fight for equality on behalf of all of us!!
Yours always,
The BGM
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