Making a safe space for the queer community means making it safe for the WHOLE community, not just the ones that get represented most

The demand for queer safe spaces is high. Doing the work to make your space safe for all queer folx benefits you AND the greater queer community

With my Twitch channel, I make sure it’s advertised that it’s a safe space, do the work in actively saying ALL queer folx can feel safe there, and actively enforce rules that keep it safe, and dissuade people from acting in ways that would threaten the safe space

This has lead to trans viewers feeling like they can share about their transition, having conversations about identity that we can all learn from, and people with diverse identities feeling like they have a home online, which can be SO important for so many of us

There’s a tendency within our community to make spaces safe just for cis white gay men, whether it’s through simply not uplifting other voices, speaking in ways that only appeal to other cis white gays, or not being receptive to other queer perspectives in our communities

I’m a proponent for managing your space however you’d like, but there are really simple ways to make your space more appealing to the whole community, and it would be rewarding to the community AND to you to make it safe for people that...aren’t just cis white gays

So I urge you to think about your space, the way you manage it as a leader, and see if there are parts of the community that wouldn’t feel safe in your space

How do you interact with your community? How do you let certain members interact with you? Who do you actively welcome?

The nature of your community starts with you. If you want it to be a space that’s safe for all queer folx, that work starts with you

I have faith that more of the community can do the work that’s necessary to make safe spaces, but you have to be willing to start doing that work