Is being part of the gay community sometimes as fraught with disapproval as being suddenly thrown into the middle of a Tea Party convention? With so much historic, high-profile good news on gay marriage, it's easy to forget so many LGBT people still feel like outcasts within the gay community.
In his marvelous essay It Gets Better, Unless You're Fat, writer Louis Peitzman sends a sobering reminder of LGBT opression can sometimes be an inside job.
The internalized shame I feel about my weight is largely a credit to society, where all fat people are treated like second-class citizens. But adulthood should be about repairing those wounds and learning to love myself as I am. Instead, I’m surrounded by people who, despite having faced the same oppression I have as gay men, largely refuse to embrace me at my current size. The end result is that I’ve been out for nearly a decade, and I still feel like an outcast within the gay community. I wish I had faith in that getting better any time soon.
Reflecting on this heartfelt essay, the questions echo loud and clear: Why can't we all seem to get past the weight thing, the six-pack thing, the youth thing, the perfection thing? Or is this merely one person's experience, that in no way reflects on the gay community as a whole? Post your thoughts and take our poll!
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