Loading ...- Category:
- Soap Box
- Author:
- Guest Column
- Posted:
- Tuesday, 15 September 2009
by REBECCA REYNOLDS
The flight to the ghetto. It’s a concept so closely tied to Twenty10’s inception 28 years ago that I feel despondent that we still see it happen almost three decades later.
Harvey Milk sent out the message loud and clear to queer and questioning young people: “Move to the nearest big city”. Move so you can be yourself. It’s a message broadcast loud and clear again and again through our community. Come to the city where changes are being created and you can have a beautiful life with beautiful people.
What we are effectively telling our rurally-based young people is that they can’t be happily queer if they stay in their own communities.
Many young folk I meet who come to Sydney struggle with the feeling their country towns are represented as backward and unliveable for anyone who is a little bit queer and they need to choose between being different and out of place or moving to the big city to fit in and find visibility and legitimacy. Only to realise when they get here, this is not the case.
Visibility requires an income and it is a quick lesson that Centrelink allowances do not support the visible queer lifestyle. That can create a myriad of difficult situations: Where do I get that extra money from? What do I not spend money on so I can afford to go out?
How do we make things better for queer young people or those questioning their sexuality so that staying in their home towns, and being openly queer, is an option?
In fairness to Harvey Milk, another of his important messages perhaps provides us with potential solutions.
To make substantive changes in the lives of all our community members, both rurally and in the city, we need to make a commitment to addressing causes affecting others, not just ourselves.
What would happen if we dedicated as much energy to reinvigorating the rural education or health care systems as we have put into campaigning on same-sex marriage?
The opportunities exist to make meaningful changes to the day-to-day lives of those who live beyond our big-city limits. Are you ready to be recruited for that?
Tags: city living, Harvey Milk, migration, queer youth, rural youth, Twenty10
