Hello, my name is Indigo Moon, though it may appear different on my scholarship application. I hope one day to see the world change the way it treats all marginalized groups, especially Black and brown queer and trans people. I would like to see this change in the world because these are issues that have directly impacted me and the people I care about and I want the next generations of LGBTQ+ people who also share marginalized racial identities to live in a world where they are fully seen and valued for who they are. I have identified as queer for as long as I can remember and have seen how my community has been stigmatized and scapegoated by those who don’t understand us. Since I have begun to transition I have seen how others treat trans people like social pariahs, blaming us for issues that we have are not contributing to. Black and brown queer and trans people are vilified even further, Black trans women are the most at risk to be targeted for violence and hate crimes, they are frequently the targets of murders that are a result of societal racism and transphobia.
There needs to be more places where Black and brown LGBTQ+ individuals can exist safely and feel truly recognized and I feel that these places should exist everywhere without legislation trying to impose unjust limitations on us. My fathers side of the family is Black and there is so much homophobia and transphobia that is perpetuated from some Black communities because the need to uphold systems of toxic masculinity and cis hetero patriarchy have been ingrained in us by white supremacy. My moms side of the family is Indigenous and the genocide and cultural erasure of Indigenous peoples has made it incredibly hard for two-spirit and third-gender individuals such as myself to learn from our rich cultural history because so much of that was forcefully removed from our tribes when our people were slaughtered. These are symptoms of a global problem of colonization which has caused many cultures around the globe to devalue queer and trans lives. While some people may have the opportunity to find community in queer spaces many of those spaces are predominantly white. This often results in people who are racially marginalized to face additional oppression within an already marginalized community, and while many white people are able to use their experiences with queer oppression to help liberate Black and Brown LGBQT+ individuals many have yet to do the work to unpack their racist or white supremacists beliefs.
A broader understanding of intersectionality would help eliminate much of the bigotry that people face worldwide. Building a world where we can see each other as human beings and recognize the disparity between different classes of people is a world where liberation can prevail. Part of the reason I want to pursue my degree in social work is so that I can be a part of the collective liberation of all people, but I want to focus on those who have faced violence due to where their racial backgrounds and gender and sexual identities intersect. I also hope to eventually be able to set up a scholarship fund for other Black and Indigenous LGBTQ+ individuals who are pursuing a higher education. I hope we can one day see a future where equality and equity are given to all marginalized peoples.
Thank you so much for this opportunity. It truly means so much that you are giving queer people the opportunity to make lasting impacts in the world. Have a wonderful day.
Stumbling across this scholarship, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief, visibility, of clarity. So often in my life does my identity as a queer youth feel like a taboo, an uncomfortable shift in posture, a subject that older generations in positions of power would love to overlook because it's easier to see me for all my other qualities. It's easy for my grandmother to point out a lesbian couple in disgust to me despite her knowing I'm one of them. It's easier for my dad to chuckle awkwardly when I tell his creepy friends that I'm not into boys when they ask unsolicited questions. It comes naturally for my family and workplace to graze over the fact that I'm queer and don't align with typical gender roles to feed their own concept of who it is acceptable to be. It's easier to erase queer youth because our existence is undesirable, it's not something these generations anticipate and therefore they respond with discomfort, with disapproval, with distaste. These reactions enfeeble me. They cause me to shrink and hide my personality among the flavors they can stomach, among the flavors that resonate with their limited palette. Thus, if I could see a change in this world, among so many, it would include eradicating this negative reaction to a person's visibility. It would mean existing as you are, as your regular, un-caricatured version of yourself without being given a second glance.
You see, when I'm presenting a pitch to my internship director after having cut my hair short, I don't want him to deem me as overbearing and pushy. I don't want to have to shrink back into my femininity just to gain his approval. I want him to hear me out purely to hear me out, without a second thought to my presentation or affiliation with queerness. I don't want to have to be obsequious or have to suppress my flamboyance to align with his perception of an acceptable employee. I want to see a world where our colors, our backgrounds, our accents, our presentations are appreciated, but not sensationalized, not made out to be intimidating or disqualifying. A world where I don't have to leave out the fact that my rugby coach is married to another woman just to sustain my family's approval of my sisters and I playing on her team. I want the future of the world to stop getting hung up on and appalled by our identities and the way we inhabit our bodies, but to let every person exist in the form, expression, and presentation that brings them the most peace. For if we are capable of existing in peace and in relative control of our own self-concept, then we could concentrate our efforts into progressing to a place of sustainability and progress.
In a world that doesn't try to put a ceiling on what you're allowed to accomplish as a member of x, y, or z, we wouldn't have to attend countless protests or spend hours of our remaining energy responding to ignorant people that wish to belittle us into submission to their world order. A change such as this is would set us free from the shadows we are encouraged to recede into between our moments of "normativity". This kind of change would allow us to confidently express our abilities as problem solvers, comforters, creatives, personalities, and hard workers which are currently devalued because of our identities and how we express our sexualities, cultures, disabilities, preferences, and lifestyles.
As unfettered youth, we trudge on to see a change like this to its fruition.
