After the international training course in Prague as part of the “Our Story” Erasmus+ project, Max, one of the participants from the Catalan team, shared the following reflection with us:
For many years, I thought I had little to contribute to LGTBIQ+ activism. I believed that to do true activism and change things, one had to be extremely brave, always have the answer to every question, know all the needs existing within our community and, above all, be an example of strength and resilience.
Over time, I began to humanize that vision. I learned that the one who knows the most is not always the one who has the answer, and that it is better to wait in silence than to shout a randomly chosen reply. It is true that many of the attributes I mentioned before are valid to some extent, but the most important one I learned two years ago while reading an article for university. The article was titled “What is the Contemporary?” by the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben.
In the article, Agamben offers several definitions of a contemporary person – that is, someone who understands their time and its issues in an intimate and truthful way.
The definition that struck me the most was the following: “The contemporary is the one who fixes his gaze on his own time so as to perceive not its light, but its darkness. All times are, for those who experience contemporariness, obscure. The contemporary is precisely the one who knows how to see this darkness and who is able to write by dipping his pen into the obscurity of the present.”
A contemporary person is someone who pays attention to the lights and shadows of their time, who does not look away from the difficulties of their era and is willing to confront them. Being contemporary is very similar to being an activist for a cause. An activist is also someone attentive to their time, and the attention they give it is an honest attention, guided by an unrelenting desire for improvement. Living in this world is not an easy task for many of us: there are many barriers to overcome, many fears to face, and countless molds to break.
At the beginning of this article, I mentioned that I struggled to find my voice within LGTBIQ+ activism. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been my only difficulty throughout my life. I could try to recount here all the loneliness, uncertainty, sadness, and despair I felt during the years I was in the closet. When you spend so many hours alone, you easily forget there is a world out there worth fighting for.
Rather than letting this article become a tangle of complaints, let me turn it around. Let me tell you what it meant to me to find a community in which, for the first time, I felt recognized. Let me tell you what it means for me to be part of the Our Story project and how much I have learned since joining it.
For me, the LGTBIQ+ community I belong to is a breath of fresh air, a solution to a long-standing problem I had been dragging for years. Many people, when I tell them I am a trans man, assume that this is my biggest problem, my burden in this world. They are completely wrong. For me, it has been, as I was saying, a solution: a hope for life that used to slip away from me day by day without remedy. I feel great gratitude toward the LGTBIQ+ community – for the people I have met within it and the bonds I have formed over the years. In this sense, my commitment to it is complete, and one of my greatest hopes is to see how its situation improves worldwide.
There are very few programs focused on creating safe spaces at an international level. Most of us do what we can locally, but it’s very hard to overcome the borders of our own country and, above all, the language barriers. The Our Story program manages to break that barrier and bring us all together for a common good. That is why I am deeply grateful to be part of this journey and to be able to actively work in creating a safe space internationally, one I would have loved to have when I was younger.
When one begins a project like this, there is fear, uncertainty, eagerness to learn – but above all, excitement. An overwhelming excitement that gives you the courage to get on a plane and fly to a country you don’t know. You cross that threshold because you know that on the other side there is a safe space and people who fight for the same causes as you. It is moving, because if someone had told my fifteen-year-old self that I would be collaborating in this, I probably wouldn’t have believed it. The fears I have accumulated over the years, and above all the barriers I have built myself, make me think that there is nothing I can really do well. That negative perception changes in the workshops of the program, where they give me tools to create, express, and tell my own story. I have been lucky to attend these workshops since last November, and I can assure you that they have greatly improved my ability to express myself and my skills as an activist.
First in Vilanova and later in Prague, I have been opening up and telling parts of my story that I had buried myself. It is true that I do not participate seeking any kind of therapy or anything like that, but seeing that personal healing makes me have more faith in the future and complete confidence in the project. I am convinced that what we are doing will help people who are going through hard times, people who feel the way I felt a few years ago. For me, being able to reach out virtually or from a distance to people who need it is already more than worth it. Through my writings, my zines, my drawings, or my collages, I create a narrative for others to see – and hopefully to feel inspired to share their own stories too.
We have spent a long time believing that our stories were doomed to be dark, sad, and full of insecurities. Seeing those stories gradually fill with color and creativity is something that definitely builds and heals.
In a world where they try to silence us every day, it is imperative to take a stand and be clear about which side you are on. Mine, and that of everyone who takes part in the project, is an active role in the struggle. Looking away is giving in to the demands of a few who want nothing more than for us to return to the margins. Our Story is an opportunity to make our voices heard, to build new connections, to learn from others’ stories, and to enrich our own. Being in the project is about becoming more and more contemporary every day, and avoiding that the darkness of our times pushes our community back into loneliness and anonymity.
M. Morón Alguersuari
