Queer Celebrations Need To Be More Inclusive of Neurodiversity
Once again, I’m feeling the pressure to have big bright noisy fun
It’s that time of year again. The Australian summer has worked itself to a crescendo as the Sydney Mardi Gras Festival kicks off. Gay Christmas, they call it here.
So, if you’re a queer resident of this city, you’d have been hanging out for it all year, wouldn’t you? Probably going nuts with excitement about now, right?
But not me.
I’m here to speak for the quiet queers who would rather propagate succulents or tidy their kitchen shelves than make small talk with strangers against a backdrop of thumping bass.
The more the festival hype ramps up, the more I’m reminded of just how little I belong and how far I fall short. I feel the pangs of exclusion thumping inside me as intensely as any dance music.
Alas, I must be a bad queer.
A good queer loves to party. With their ever-widening circle of friends. The more the merrier. The goal is to dissolve into an undifferentiated mass of queerness.
The weighty pressure of compulsory fun descends upon me. Not just having fun but being seen to have fun. To be part of a grand spectacle of fun. Quick, I need to find…
