Secret Super Powers
🏳️🌈 It's June, and this time of the year usually centres around Pride in most of the world. Rainbow flags, parties and fundraisers are all over my social media feeds. And while, yes, here in Aotearoa New Zealand we acknowledge Pride month and have additional events on, it's not quite the same. The weather is windy and bloody wet, and we're all getting up in the dark, spending most evenings in front of the newest series. A far cry from the long glorious days of summery February when we celebrate Pride this far south of the equator.
That being said, global Pride month has definitely got me thinking this year.
My queerness and how I fit into the rainbow whānau, both here and globally, is always dancing around the back of my mind. Being a cis white woman in a heterosexual presenting couple, people’s gaydars don't often go off around me, so I tend to fly under the radar when it comes to my queerness. My Britishness is much harder to hide!🫖
A couple of weeks ago, I came out at my (relatively) new workplace, not to huge surprise but a definite eyebrow twitching surprise, because it felt like the right time and with the right people. At my Women's Circle last weekend, it was centred around male / female relationships and it made me squirm inside. Not just for me, but for others in the circle who might also present as queer or non-binary.
Now, please don't take these few paragraphs as yet another cis white woman trying to find something, anything to feel marginalised. Far from it. To me, most of the time, presenting as “heteronormative” is a superpower!
I don't necessarily need to come out to push a more inclusive, compassionate, and accepting workplace or community, I can walk down most streets, in most countries holding my partner's hand without fear of anything happening to me, and I'm lucky that talking about heteronormative relationships only makes me squirm rather than a feeling of not belonging.
I don’t always hold off on coming out because, for the most part, it's important to me that people truly understand who I am and what I have to offer as a coach, a HR professional, and a plain old human.
It’s made me wonder who else has a secret super power that helps them navigate life, without having to ‘come out’ every time they want to initiate change for the better. Whether it's being queer, neurodiverse, a parent, a survivor of abuse, long term physical or mental illness diagnosis, a carer. There are so many different identities and intersections we sit in that allow us to quietly, or loudly, make change.
Do you have a super power that helps you navigate life and create more inclusive, compassionate and accepting communities? 🦸♀️🦸♂️