WHAT IS QUEER TRAUMA?

What is Queer Trauma?

In getting started I would like to begin with some history and some definitions. I think in layers  and to get to Queer Trauma, we have to go back in time.  I will start with Social Constructs. 

A social construct is:

An idea that has been created and accepted by the people in a society. They don’t represent reality they are just upheld because most of society have accepted them. A social construct can be beneficial or harmful to different groups of people.

EXAMPLES OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTS:

• RACE

• GENDER

• IDEA OF DISABILITY

• SEXUALITY

A very specific example of a social construct is the Gender Binary. 

Gender Binary, system, is:

A culturally and socially defined code of acceptable and expected behaviors which assumes our world is made up of only men and women and that there is nothing outside of this system.

Social constructs and the Gender Binary system become very relevant because they have become the lens in which most of the world operates. Whether we agree with the constructs or not, it is essential to understand their existence in order for us to understand how we are impacted and then how we move through this world. 

The next layer is What does Queer mean? And in order to understand what Queer means I would like to note a few things. 1. The word Queer has a history of being derogatory AND it has been reclaimed by a large part of the community, as I use the word in this book I am standing in the place of reclaiming the word while also knowing the harm that has been caused with the use of this word 2. The word Queer means something different to any person that you ask and 3. I know the list that follows of what Queer means is not all inclusive so please write in your own answer, send me a message and tell me your definition or even as you read along shout out your own answer, this is just the beginning. 

Queer and Queer Theory:

• Yes Queer has roots as being a derogatory term AND

• Queer REemerged as a response and renewal of radical activism, during the HIV/AIDS crisis

• Umbrella term…for some- just know that when you use this word it is not all inclusive

• Remembering and not erasing what has come before, we must honor that Queer theory is only here because of all the work that was done before, Queer theory honors the work of the black feminist movement, the gay liberation movement, the feminist movement. 

• A feeling that dims the more we talk about it, like anything in academia, the more we put words to it the more inaccessible it becomes and often with queerness its beauty is in not being able to fully explain, we honor this too.

Perhaps my favorite definition of Queerness is this idea that Queerness is 

• Tentative and always changing

• Your turn, what is Queer to you ________________________

Queering 

“Queer' not as being about who you're having sex with (that can be a dimension of it); but 'queer' as being about the self that is at odds with everything around it and that has to invent and create and find a place to speak and to thrive and to live.” bell hooks

“Queer is by definition whatever is at odds with the normal, the legitimate, the dominant. There is nothing in particular to which it necessarily refers. It is an identity without an essence.” (David Halprin)

“From this orientation, queer shifts from being an adjective to a verb: not something one is, but something one does”.(Rae Johnson)

This is part of the honoring, all of these people said these things long before me about Queer/Queerness. My favorite part is this idea that Queer can become a verb, as Johnson says. 

I introduce Queering as another lens, it is a way in which one can move about this earth. I believe that Queer as an identity is reserved for those in the community but i think the idea of Queering benefits all of us. Some other ways to think about Queering:

• Seeing the world from outside the box (social constructs)

• Something at odds with the Normal or the dominant story

• The act of applying a lens that enables one to see something from a new perspective

• The act of making something more accessible for any individual who feels on the outside (beyond the LGBTQ+ community)

• Listening for whose voices are not being heard

Queering is a lens in which I use it is like a pair of glasses that never come off, it is a practice of unlearning and practicing a different way of thinking, asking questions and creating. This is the lens I have brought with me into the therapy room. It is the lens that has supported my understanding that the way we view trauma and trauma work in this world does not quite have language for understanding the trauma of those who exist in a world that was not designed for them. 

Trauma is:

A perceived or actual threat to one’s life or safety. A trauma reaction lives in the oldest part of our brain, the amygdala which is responsible for flight, fight or freeze. As we have evolved, we have had to differentiate between and actual life threat and a perceived life threat, though both have the same biological reaction.  

“The body-mind's response to a life threatening or perceived life-threatening situation that does not fully sequence through the body". Katie Asmus

There are many definitions of trauma and my stuck point is around this idea that in the trauma field we think of a trauma as an event or series of events, and when we talk about Queer trauma I want to introduce this idea that we are talking about a daily existence, not an event that has a start or end point.

Queer trauma is:

• Queer trauma is the idea that trauma is not solely a response/impact to/of an event or series of events but the impact of existing in a world that was not created with us in mind. It is the culmination of every micro and macro aggression. Queer trauma refers to intergenerational, intersectional and societal history. Queer Trauma is the description of what it feels like to move through this world knowing every facet of the dominant culture was not designed to include us, it creates an environment that is one of hypervigilance, fear and isolation. Queer trauma is a call for individual healing, relational healing and institutional commitment to change. 

• Queer trauma can be categorized as transgenerational or intergenerational trauma. Beyond that, it is intersectional with racial trauma and poverty trauma. This is trauma that we’ve inherited from those who have come before us in our movements for equality and civil rights, such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera. It can be felt in the collective identity of resilience and pride that we all share with one another, especially when we demonstrate.  https://www.spectrumsouth.com/queer-trauma/

• Its trauma,  same aspects and impacts of trauma but it is also inherited history, double/constant work, its constant rejection, historical oppression, it’s understanding what has come before. Being in a constant state of fight or flight or freeze, being hyperware of injustices to a default, it is being unable to unsee things.

• Deliberate violent exclusion, had to be alternative versions of our self in order to feel a sense of belonging and safety rather than authentic versions of our self. 

Queer trauma and it’s impact:

From this place I want to create space for feeling this pain, validating these experiences and I want more for me and more for us as a community. I want to support moving from Queer trauma towards queer healing, joy and futures. I know there is not one fits all way to do this and I have created a 6 step offering for this.

6 steps to move from Queer trauma towards healing, joy and futures. To learn these steps reach out to sign up for our up-coming course or workshop!