This is not about appropriating or gentrifying queerness. I don’t get to wrap a rainbow around my relationships while holding tightly to the benefits of being a cishet person, and not show up for queer people. Straight and/or cisgender folks don’t get to be the people who benefit most from the work queer people do to make themselves more free. I have a responsibility to listen, to care for, to defend, to protect. I’m often doing it because I know it’s the right thing to do and it aligns with my values and beliefs. But more and more, I’m doing it because I see clearly that my freedom is tied to
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