Courage to be Queer About YourLife

(first draft)

Note: I've been working towards rediscovering my ability to share unfinished arts. I am on a path to learning how navigate being an artist outside the guise of marching towards being perfect.

Maybe, in my quest to become solidified in who I am, I’ve lost sight of who I could be? As if I’ve embarked on a journey many many years ago and reached my destination, only to find that the map has aged or become outdated. As if day in and day out, time flies and I grew further and further from where I’ve been, who I was, and closer to who I am now, but nothing more than that. Between a waxing economy leaving its talons of taxes on our mental health and pockets and the constant inner turmoil of being young in this time period, there are a myriad of reasons to give into comfort and stagnation.

But, don’t I owe myself a period of deep hallowed breaths, expanding in and out? The bellowing vortex of the breath of life living through me?

I feel as if we’re bound to face a famine, both of food and the craft. Tariffs are eating away at the systems that kept our citizens healthy and fed for decades and artists are garnering holes in their pockets to ensure they can pay their rent and create their art. Only the most resilient artists in our generation will be able to persevere past this massive coffee stain in our chapter of American history. And unfortunately, the time to sit on the sidelines has passed many many months ago.

During this past year many of the promises, rules and guidelines bestowed upon many in the American academic world have been revoked, dismissed and dismantled right before our eyes. We all understand that pursuing a higher education gives you the chance at using your degree for something other than a dusted decoration on a wall, but I’m realizing that at least for me, it might as well be.

And that’s okay with me.

It might seem quite contrarian for me to openly admit a bold statement like this. Especially due to the fact that in the world of academia there’s a code of “hush hush” when talking about the reality of the importance of our degrees… especially in liberal and creative arts…considering most students picked their degree based on the promise of “high paying jobs”, another false promise spoon fed unto us by the academic world.

However I find courage in acknowledging the reality. I find space for query in learning to accept what is. In my opinion , The more we continue to fight to ignore what our reality is as modern artists, the harder it will be for us to grow and create new concepts, ideas and new ways of life. If you’re actively refusing to accept that we live amongst fascists and racists and hatred filled bigots fueled by prejudice, then you’ll never become the artist that makes art IN SPITE of racism, facism, prejudice and a society driven by hate. If you aren’t able to accept the fact that academia failed multiple generations of dreamers and artists than you will NEVER be the artist that creates in SPITE of lies and broken promises handed to you by these institutions.

In accepting what we are, who we are, where we are and when we are, only then are we able to take action on who we want to be, what we want to stand for and make of ourselves and our art. And this is where I believe that there is space to be queer about our lives

The atrocities that have occurred in the past few years have shaken up the world to such a point where I feel as if our foundational pillars of society have been broken. Or, maybe they’ve been broken for a long while, and the public is finally able to see it clearly.

10/25/25 Stephan LaFortune