{"id":37379,"date":"2026-02-27T13:08:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T21:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/?p=37379"},"modified":"2026-03-04T15:47:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T23:47:40","slug":"the-power-of-queer-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/blog\/the-power-of-queer-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Queer Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\u00a0<\/p>

\"\"<\/p>

The Power of Queer Joy<\/strong><\/p>

By Ra\u00fal<\/p>

Lately, I\u2019ve been reflecting deeply on queer joy: what it means to me, and how it ripples through our community and our loved ones. While the specific phrase \u201cqueer joy\u201d doesn\u2019t have one single inventor, we owe so much to writer and activist Audre Lorde. Her work on the “erotic” as a vital force helps us understand queer joy as an act of resistance. By embracing it, we return to our individual and collective power.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

In her essay\u00a0<\/span>The Use of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power<\/span><\/i>, Lorde describes this force as a “deep participation” that counters stereotypes. I believe\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0the\u00a0real answer. Queer joy is an invitation to\u00a0participate\u00a0in a way of feeling and being that has been\u00a0long\u00a0suppressed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Think about it.\u00a0At an\u00a0early age (and\u00a0perhaps\u00a0into\u00a0our later\u00a0life), many of us\u00a0feel\u00a0detached from society\u2019s “normal.”\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0told our queerness requires some sort of formal approval\u00a0and\u00a0that we must\u00a0justify our existence\u00a0with a coming out announcement. But what happens to the child who knows nothing other than simply being joyous?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

In\u00a0a previous\u00a0post, my colleague Jade spoke about the idea of “coming in” as a form of self-power:\u00a0returning to the Self with the intention of care and healing. For many of us, coming out is an act of courage and a lifelong process. As Jade shared, \u201cEach disclosure is a leap of faith… and yet, coming out is only half the story. What if we focused on the idea of coming in?\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

That\u2019s\u00a0the focus, right? How do we reach a place where we can express ourselves unapologetically, without the fear of being “too much” or being dismissed as someone who just “acts a little too gay”?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Here\u2019s\u00a0the\u00a0real\u00a0truth:\u00a0There is no such thing as being “too much” of who you are. We are all beams of light with\u00a0tremendous\u00a0power to shine. Queer people do not sit on the sidelines.\u00a0We build\u00a0the field and the sidelines so that we can\u00a0move freely. We build stages so we can share our art. To me, queer people are a beautiful piece of art\u00a0and expression. And art\u00a0isn’t\u00a0linear;\u00a0art\u00a0has no boundaries.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

This morning, listening to the\u00a0podcast\u00a0<\/span>It\u2019s\u00a0Open with Ilana Glazer<\/span><\/i>, I heard a moving conversation with Chase Strangio\u00a0from the American Civil Liberties Union\u00a0about queer folks being free. While we might not all feel “free” yet, the takeaway was the necessity of\u00a0seeking\u00a0joy.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

That is exactly what Audre Lorde believed:\u00a0We must\u00a0seek out\u00a0joy in the face of erasure. Our joy cannot be borrowed or granted. We must take possession of what already belongs to us. That is\u00a0<\/span>Queer Joy.<\/span><\/b><\/p><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Lately,\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0been reflecting deeply on queer joy:\u00a0what it means to me, and how it ripples through our community and our loved ones.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":37382,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecentercv.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}