The Problem
My team members and I are currently planning a service project that will serve to bring a greater awareness of queer individuals within predominantly African American communities. Minority queer youth specifically, face increased stigmatization due to anti-queer discrimination from heterosexual individuals and racism within the queer community; and such individuals have the right to have their voices and opinions heard. My service project will serve as a platform for such voices and opinions.
Our Plan
My peers and I thus, decided to plan a service project to increase the awareness of such an acute problem. The erasure, and lack thereof, of a presence of sexual minorities within predominantly African American societies, tends to be one of little importance. Thus, through the use of a youth fair, we plan on having active members of the community, who self-identify as people of color, and members of the queer (non-cisgender & non-heterosexual) community, speak about the necessity for queer inclusion with African American spaces; and furthermore, spark an important discussion on intersectionality within such communities. I would ultimately, like to explore the ways in which race and sexual orientation and gender identity, coalesce to disproportionately affect queer people of color. Moreover however, my project will (hopefully), make my Bedford-Stuyvesant community more conscious- conscious of the importance of intersectional approaches when wishing to understand discrimination; more conscious that much research has to be done on the plights of minority queer individuals; and more conscious that individuals experience the world through the lens of a totality of their identities.