only cisgender white heteronormative folk are happy where they're going.
I don't know about that: I know some non-white people, and some non-cisgendered non-heteronormative people, who live in Texas. They often seem pretty happy to me. I visited Texas in highschool, and am pretty sure I was not secretly miserable there, though I did get a miserable sunburn.
I hear that Texans have even produced non-cisgendered, non-white, non-heteronormative persons on their very own, and not all of them get exported.
Rush and Gaudior don't have to leave their souls at the border crossing, and shouldn't, and aren't planning on it--even though there's a myth that non-normative people are somehow required to, or that their souls will be leeched away gradually by normativity. From talking to them early on about my own concerns about their relocation, I came to realized that they knew before I did that they wouldn't, couldn't, and shouldn't give that up. It made me a lot more comfortable with their decision to move. (Even though I miss them more than I can say).
I understand that you are probably worried for your friends during their logistically tough move to what will be a different kind of life in a different culture, but I feel that your comment plays directly into the myth that non-normative people should not go to where they want to go, and should not do what they want to do, unless the normative people there already approve of their existence. If we wait for that universal approval, we'll be waiting forever. If we go and do what we need to do with our lives, despite our fears and despite normativity, we might be able to have a life to live. (Which presents the possibility of letting us change at least ourselves.)
If they do wind up being unhappy there, for whatever reason, there are 49 other states--even the rest of the world. If Rush & Gaudior themselves, after moving, declare normative Texan misery and flee, I'm going to respect that: but I think it's dangerous to suggest that they ought to do so pre-emptively, simply because they're moving to a place that supposedly buys into a normative cultural myth.
no subject
I don't know about that: I know some non-white people, and some non-cisgendered non-heteronormative people, who live in Texas. They often seem pretty happy to me. I visited Texas in highschool, and am pretty sure I was not secretly miserable there, though I did get a miserable sunburn.
I hear that Texans have even produced non-cisgendered, non-white, non-heteronormative persons on their very own, and not all of them get exported.
Rush and Gaudior don't have to leave their souls at the border crossing, and shouldn't, and aren't planning on it--even though there's a myth that non-normative people are somehow required to, or that their souls will be leeched away gradually by normativity. From talking to them early on about my own concerns about their relocation, I came to realized that they knew before I did that they wouldn't, couldn't, and shouldn't give that up. It made me a lot more comfortable with their decision to move. (Even though I miss them more than I can say).
I understand that you are probably worried for your friends during their logistically tough move to what will be a different kind of life in a different culture, but I feel that your comment plays directly into the myth that non-normative people should not go to where they want to go, and should not do what they want to do, unless the normative people there already approve of their existence.
If we wait for that universal approval, we'll be waiting forever. If we go and do what we need to do with our lives, despite our fears and despite normativity, we might be able to have a life to live. (Which presents the possibility of letting us change at least ourselves.)
If they do wind up being unhappy there, for whatever reason, there are 49 other states--even the rest of the world. If Rush & Gaudior themselves, after moving, declare normative Texan misery and flee, I'm going to respect that: but I think it's dangerous to suggest that they ought to do so pre-emptively, simply because they're moving to a place that supposedly buys into a normative cultural myth.