Introductions?

I'm Kerrick. I joined Zaadz looking to meet new people who are thinkers and feelers, and what triggered my decision was finding a Pod called Conscious Queers that sounded cool. Unfortunately, that's been dissolved, so I thought I'd start my own. And here you see me.

I am a queer man with a female history who has had the privilege of being raised and regarded as white. I follow a pagan spirituality and have a strong sense of mysticism, but in my day-to-day life I prioritize reason and tangible experience over mystical insight. I am a grad student. I'm anti-capitalist. I'm also polyamorous by practice and rigorously ethical about it.

And you?

Re: Introductions?

Hello, I’m Rod. I joined Zaadz to help further my spiritual journey with other ideas and to meet some thoughtful, intelligent people.

I invite you to read my life story on my profile.

There are a few other Gay pods on zaadz. but thank you for forming this one.

Rod

Re: Introductions?

me…

well, i started conscious queers, which got a bit confusing because it was starting to take two directions, both of which i was okay with, but which were starting to compete, so i closed that one. i am glad kerrick started this group and given the comments on male with a female past, it helps me understand a bit further the appreciation of the term queer vs. gay. it all can be complex stuff and as our society evolves and there are so many variations i see why there would be people called to challenge things and wanting to find ways that they fit, and areas where people would just be uneducated. i think this pod has the potential to educate people in a number of areas if it is fed properly with dialogues.

beyond that i guess i should introduce myself eh? gay man, even the term gay is odd for me which is why i started the ‘queers’ group, but mainly we had gay men and i was getting people upset with the term ‘queers’ and had no idea that there would be people who did not feel they fit without that term. for me, i like queers, because i don’t really relate specifically to sexual identity and i think that gay sorta means that. technically though i would be a male who has only been in relationships physically with other males since i was a teenager.

grew up in utah. lived in dallas and then nyc with an 8 yr partner which ended shortly after 9/11 when we both decided to leave the state and there were some last straws and disagreements on where to live. so we went our own directions. we are friends, but happily separated. many people have said ‘sorry about the failure of the relationship’ and i see it more as a success. we learned. we grew. we saw that it wasn’t right and moved on. there were no children involved and were there, perhaps it would be different. perhaps we can discuss some of these themes in a discussion about queer relationships of various forms (like polyamory).

in nyc i was a pretty accepted gay male. friends who were of all different backgrounds. some heterosexual. some gay. some lesbian. nobody too on the fringe as far as queer. our life was pretty ‘normal’ in many ways. i had been a club kid prior, but we were just two gay men working in different fields. i consulted in feng shui and environmental psychology. he worked in fashion. we were a couple that many idealized in different ways. we had our issues, but were pretty loving to one another and pretty basic people.

i say all that because when i moved back to utah there was the big ol’ mess of gay people here. low self esteem. suicidal tendencies. suicides. overdoses. stories of old friends in prison. it would be like a jew living a normal life and then going to another place where they were hated, or an african going from a country with no racism to one where there was racism. suddenly people cringed when they heard i was gay, would say things like ‘i have always found that to be loathsome’ etc… suddenly queer literature and queer tv meant something to me. suddenly i longed for something remotely affirmative of me. gay rights became relevant.

i am still learning. still working to understand life beyond me and my personal needs and wants and yet in a place where there is so much nastiness towards gay people, it can be hard to see beyond the needs of the gay community itself at times. although i am certainly working to be educated in a lot of other areas. some queer specific. some race issues.

i think there are people in this country who suffer amazingly and then there are people who are quite comfortable. and of course some with a bit in between, but it is easy to forget the plight of people and seeing the issues in utah and beyond in this country around the gay community, it makes me further concerned about gay issues in other countries, and i guess queer issues in other countries are also likely relevant. my intention has been to be focused where possible so i can make some difference and understand areas that i can make a difference in in smaller and larger ways. the suffering in the world is quite vast. i do what i can with the gay men who i interact with (in teaching settings through different avenues) to educate them on transgender issues, to discourage and disarm prejudice that may be racial or towards drag queens or others, which is one reason i work to be educated on queer issues.

thanks for starting this group kerrick… would love to hear further comments on your history… perhaps in a new thread. specifically a discussion on polyamory i think would be interesting as well as one on transgender issues i think would be interesting to dialogue about.

Re: Introductions?

Wow, if you could find me a country where there is no racism, that would be amazing.

“many people have said ‘sorry about the failure of the relationship’ and i see it more as a success. we learned. we grew. we saw that it wasn’t right and moved on.”

Yeah, I really relate to that. I have had some amazing relationships that ended, and it was hard to end them but it was right. I have had one terrible relationship that was a failure as long as I was in it and became successful only when it ended.

Re: Introductions?

Also, welcome everyone. It looks like we've reached critical mass, so now the conversations can start in earnest!

Re: Introductions?

lol…

love the comment about something being a success only when it ended. the idea of karma and being 'done' with it is such a nice thing sometimes in context of some of the rougher dating/relationship situations. to have learned one's lesson, gleaned what one may have needed to move on. hopefully anyhow so they don't attract something similar.

-d

Re: Introductions?

Hello everyone, My name is Ceila, a 30 yr old lesbian and mother of 2 girls (11and 9) and partnered with the world's greatest woman, Michelle. I have been writing to other groups I belong to so my fingers are tired, so I am just going to say… please go read my profile, then when you got some free time.. go read me blogs. I have written papers on gay marriage, being adopted and finding my b/brothers, homophobia, bias in the news, and on the censorship of gay literature, so please feel free to read and comment about the things I've written. Take care and hope to here from some people soon. Hugs, Ceila

Re: Introductions?

I just wanted to say Hi  *waves enthusiastically* and tell you a bit about me. I've been online for a few years now but only just joined Zaadz. I'm post-op MtF Ts but identify as Intergender (both male AND female) - most of the time as a female man in a womans body, but my identity is quite fluid and changes like the weather. Some days I feel male, some days female, and other days, I really don't know what I am or how I feel, I just am - Me. Unique.

I don't regard myself as heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. I feel that through my fluid gender identity I transcend ordinary sexual classifications. If I were to have to choose a label and box myself, I'd say I was metasexual. When I fall in love with someone (which rarely happens!) I fall in love with the person. What they have between their legs is irrelevant to me. .

Ultimately though, I feel labels imprison me, and I strive “to be free from the boundaries created by expectations, roles, and fears, and even from the limitations of my own genitals”  - Michael Thomas Ford .

Best wishes,
Kris.

Re: Introductions?

hello! my name is chelsea, and i am commonly called chase - i embrace both names and what they represent. i came out as a lesbian when i was 17 years old, but have since realized there is a great deal of fluidity to my sexuality (as well as gender identity) and prefer to call myself pansexual, when pressed for a label. i have been priveleged to have grown up on an island full of open-minded people, with a generous and open queer community. i am vegan, an anarchist, and a feminist - i allign myself with many different factions of feminism, particularly ecofeminism and transfeminism. i have been honoured to have many trans lovers and friends in my life, and my experiences have been ripe with learning and challenging and expanding my own perceptions/ideologies. i'm brand new to zaadz and excited to be here!

namaste.