Supporting Community: Developing Pride & Empowerment Across Identities

Beyond the fact that there are intersections – people being members of both communities at the same time – the LGBTQI+ community and the disability community have much in common. Both communities have had to struggle to be recognized and respected. Both communities fight hard for basic human rights – sometimes just the right to exist in this world – and neither community has fully gained them. 

And we are both everywhere. Being of the LGBTQI+ and/or disability community is almost ubiquitous in that we can be all over the place and yet sometimes never be seen.

With all of this going on, how do we best support each other? How can we show up for each other, and help each other feel empowered? Here are some tips:

1. Listen. So many of us feel alone, isolated. Even if we belong to a community by dint of our sexual orientation, brains, or bodies, we might not necessarily feel included or truly alike the others in our group. Everyone sparkles in a different way, everyone’s rainbow is a little different. So listen to each other, and hold space for our differences and similarities. 
2. Learn. For those of us who are squarely in the disability community, learning the history of the LGTBQI+ community can be helpful, to understand the trajectory of struggle. Those LGTBQI+ Pride Parades are so joy-filled, glamorous, and sexy! They were also hard-won, and they are still being hard-won. We honor the LGTBQI+ community with our learning, curiosity, and interest. 
3. Hold space for intersections. Many of us in the disability community intersect with the LGTBQI+ community, and that is fine. We don’t need to be “either” “or”, we can be “and.” We can be queer and disabled. We can be gay and autistic. We are allowed our intersections to occupy the spaces and identities that we connect with.
4. Show up. The LGTBQI+ community has faced some truly gut-wrenching, terrifying discrimination and rights-stripping this past year. Showing up to help make the calls, advocate, and resolutely refusing to accept injustice walks the talk of being an ally. 

Pride is an emotional response or attitude to something with an intimate connection to oneself, due to its perceived value. To have pride is to perceive value in who we are. Seeing the value in who we are and embracing it when a mainstream society tells us we are “broken,” “wrong,” “abnormal,” and “in need of fixing” is a radical act. This act is empowering. 

Pride is power. Let us see the value in each other.

Meriah Hudson Nichols is a therapist, counselor, and blogger. Neurodivergent, queer and deaf, she is also a single mom of three very cool human beings with whom she enjoys watching Star Trek. She is passionate about disability rights, education, and employment. Her special interests include gardening and planning.