As anyone who knows me, I love to read- and when I say love to read I mean REALLY love to read. I won’t lie though- I normally stick to my favourite genres; that is gay romance and science fiction and sometimes even a blend of those two!
On Occassion, I do branch out and in the last few days I’ve started reading an anthology of essays entitled We Can Do Better Than This: 35 Voices on the Future of LGBTQ+ Rights (Vintage Digital).
While I’ve only just started reading it, the contents page as per any non fiction and anthology work, is a guide to what journey I’ll be on and it’s certainly whetted my appetite that’s for certain! Divided into sections, you start at safety, before proceeding onto visibility, which is followed by dating/love/family. This is then followed by a health and social care section, followed by beyond the binary and finishes off with community and organising.
Just be looking at those titles I am already excited- I have already finished with safety and have preceded into visibility and it’s already making me question things (as good work does!), and ponder life as a whole.
The reason I’ve entitled this post activism and reading is because I am pondering how strong the link between the two is.
For example, I personally believe that the act of reading itself is an intrinsic value of the act of activism. The role of a an activist is to be the best activist they can when pushing for change and one of the ways is to be well rounded and knowledgeable. This can be achieved in many ways- by allyship with the people you are advocating for, by speaking to many people from as many backgrounds as you can and/or reading and acquiring knoweddlge of what the situation is and how it can be changed.
A good piece of writing acts as a a sounding board- you can use it as a point to question your beliefs (in a good way- after all values and believes evolve over time, because of new experiences and exposures to people from backgrounds), and evolve to better yourself. And that’s a key role of activism- your aim is to change others and challenge them, but in order to do so you must do it to yourself.
So far We Can Do Better Than This is doing the same for me; while I’m not sheltered by any means (after all you would have to be very closed off not to know about constant attacks on trans people worldwide, the Russian and Eastern European “anti gay zones” to name but two things), but so far this anthology has opened my eyes even more. The miniature of the everyday experience and the terror and fear others have to go through breaks my heart.
It’s why I read as much as I do- i need to know about the human experience and it’s why I think reading as a form of activism is one of my key skills. I advocate for change and better life and work experiences for people of all backgrounds and that’s why I encourage you to do so as well.