Inspired by this photography project about racial microaggressions, Kevin Nadal, associate professor of psychology at CUNY’s John Jay College, asked some of his friends to share the microaggressions they’ve experienced as members of the LGBT community.
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All photos courtesy of Kevin Nadal
Originally appeared at BuzzFeed.com
In his research on LGBT microaggressions, Nadal has found:
All of these microaggressions have a significant impact on people’s lives. While some of these experiences may seem brief and harmless, many studies have found that the more that people experience microaggressions, the more likely they are to report symptoms of depression, psychological distress, and even physical health issues.
All photos courtesy of Kevin Nadal
See 13 more photos and moving messages on BuzzFeed
I think some of you are idiots who have missed the point of this article. Smh.
Since when is “That’s totally cool with me, as long as I can watch!” a *micro*aggression?? That’s flat out sexual harassment no matter the specific gender/orientation context!
While “are you a man or a woman?” is absolutely a poor way to ask about the way someone identifies, I feel like you have to give some credit to the person asking for, well, asking, and making an attempt to identify someone in the way they want to be identified instead of just the way they appear. Not saying that you cant ask that question in an aggressive/inappropriate way, either. I just hope that this project doesn’t make anyone think that asking someone how they identify is inappropriate. We ought to be moving towards that, not away from it.
Ya but man or woman keeps the gender binary of the heterosexist ideology intact. Its not necessary to know how someone identifies in order to treat them respectfully. Just the same, if someone has an accent or speaks a different language, its not necessary to know where they are from .
I don’t think that question is one that’s meant to ascertain how someone known to the questioner identifies. I think the context is a stranger or near-stranger either genuinely not knowing how to sort someone who is gender queer (because they simply must know how to interact with this person based on gender–does s/he like makeup or sports?! It’s impossible to interact otherwise, right?!) or passive aggressively indicating that a gender queer person defies expectations of “male” or “female” despite it seeming apparent what gender the person actually is. It’s like when young children call a woman with short hair… Read more »
It’s rude to ask what someone’s sex is because it can be very hurtful to someone, especially someone in transition. If you aren’t sure and they don’t volunteer, refer to them as “they/their” when you talk about them and don’t nt talk about them behind their backs because that’s rude. If you see each other often, it is more sensitive to ask someone’s preferred pronouns, which may not even be she/he. They may prefer they, it, hir, zie, or many others.