Lived Experience Forum

[MoonGal]

Just a reminder to anyone in the conversation that you have to refresh the page often to see new comments.

[CherryBomb]

@RossQLife, I want to come back to this idea of reslience. 

But I just want to ask a question, which might seem silly, what is discrimination? I ask this because I think its important to know how to recognise it because sometimes its not that obvious. 

[CherryBomb]

Welcome to conversation, @MoonGal! Nice to see you here. 

[RossQLife]

Great question @CherryBomb. What's that old saying about no silly ones...?

Discrimination looks like being treated differently to how others would be treated because of an external reason. Often this reason is a problem for the person doing the discrimination, rather than the person who is the brunt of it. An example of this is racism, perhaps the most well known form of discrimination we've (sadly) all seen. For LGBTI people, discrimination can be insults, being excluded or fired from a workplace, among many many other things.

[MoonGal]

Discrimination is a big headliner in the USA at the moment - in regards some States enacting anti-lgbti laws - particularly the bathroom entry requirements for transgender men and women being 'forced' to use the bathroon of their birth gender not their gender identity. What kinds of resilience can one build when the whole world seems set on calling you unworthy and "predatory" just because you need to pee?

[CherryBomb]

I see, it's exlcusion based on a point of difference. I'm sure many of us on here can relate to feeling like this. 

@RossQLife what impact does this have on someone's well-being? You mentioned LGBTI people develop resilience as a response - is this a postive or negative?

[MoonGal]

(I also wonder if @Jasper might also like to join this conversation if you are around?)

[eth]

@RossQLife  I am a parent of someone who is transgender (non-binary) and we have celebrated today.  They also have a disability and I have mental health challenges so we have experienced discrimination in many forms over the years.  For me not as often any more but for them (pronoun they use) it is still occurring on a daily basis if not more often.

[RossQLife]

It's a pretty tough situation, @MoonGal, when the most private things in your life become a political football. Even worse when people are speaking out angrily against who you are, and you just want to lead your life.

In our experience at QLife, it's feeling connected to your loved ones, doing the things you love, or reaching out to professionals like us. We're doing a lot of speaking to people at the moment about the very public talk about LGBTI people - here in Australia it's marriage equality and safe schools leading the way. The US discussion of public bathrooms is pretty painful to watch, even from over here.

[RossQLife]

Hi @eth, thanks for contributing. Big props to your young 'un!

I really don't want to diminish how hard it can be to experience discrimination, exclusion and outright hate on a daily basis. All I can encourage is that your wonderful young person stays connected to tother young people like them if at all possible... online can be great for this if face to face services aren't a possiblity. Are they still at school?