As members of the LGBTQ+ community there are many times we may wish we had the guidance or advice from an older person who has lived through similar experiences. We are not as openly afforded the opportunities to engage in dialogue with those who have difficult coming out stories, advice for countering bullying, or getting your heart broken. In turn, many older generations may wish that growing up they had as much freedom of expression that today’s youth may have when it comes to sexuality. Perhaps the era or region they lived in was a roadblock for complete happiness and they have had to learn about love and loss through decades of struggle.
Wouldn’t it be nice that we could talk to our younger selves and impart the wisdom we have gained? Every season the contestants on RuPaul’s Drag Race do this as an exercise in sensitivity. Last week we heard the top four, Asia, Aquaria, Eureka, and Kameron, talking to their younger selves begging them to never give up on their dreams and to fight through pain and anguish.
The mentoring of one another is crucial in our community. We should uplift and support one another for the sake that there may be no one else in someone’s life that could or would understand. If you think about you’ve learned in life up until this point, wouldn’t you go back and talk to your younger self if you could? Maybe it would be a warning, praise you never gave yourself, or a simple acknowledgment that you matter. Obviously, this isn’t possible, but these same words could save another person’s life. Someone who is feeling the same things or going through the struggles of identity and trying to find their place on this earth.
Digital Storyteller, Davey Wavey, collaborated with the LGBT Community Center of the Desert in Palm Springs, CA and created this truly inspiring video of elders in the LGBT community speaking to their younger selves.
Davey says:
While today's world is far from perfect, there's no doubt that the LGBT community has enjoyed considerable progress over the last half century. That progress, in many ways, was only made possible through the sacrifices, sweat, blood and tears of our community's elders. And yet, our LGBT elders are underrepresented and often invisible and the very community they helped to create. The reality is, our elders deserve to be seen, respected, celebrated and heard. And when we listen, they have a great deal of wisdom and advice to offer us. Whatever it is that we are going through, they've been there – and there's no need to reinvent the wheel with each generation. It's my hope that this video is a step in the transference of that wisdom from one generation to the next.
Watch this video that will speak to your mind, your heart, and that 8-year-old self wondering about the big complicated world around you:
If you could speak to your younger self, what would you say?
h/t: Davey Wavey YouTube
