Aligned Values
Knowledge and PowerÂ
Bursting Through evolved from and revolves around Active Allyship. Active Allyship is simply living your Allyship values out loud, every day in every possible way. Â
As a Bursting Through member, Allyship is one of your values and connects you to other members. Like any value, Allyship presents itself organically, at one point was learned, and the more itâs put into action the more natural it becomes.Â
Our values are such a part of us we donât often consciously think about them. Through my mental health journey, I realized how much I took my values for granted. I realize how unaware I was of how they influenced my beliefs, drove my behavior, and attracted me to like-minded people. Â
I learned I had unintentionally fought them as they evolved to align with my lived experiences. Worse yet, I assumed everyone I cared about shared my values and that their values had evolved with mine even when that was not true.Â
Shared values have been on my mind a lot recently. I canât follow the 2024 Presidential contest without thinking about the very different values of the two candidates and what their visions mean to me and the people I hold close.
In addition, I canât go on to any social media channel without being bombarded with memes and posts pleading with MAGA supporters to awaken to who Trump is. The heartfelt appeals all have a âwhatâs it going to takeâ approach and seem to come from a deep desire to connect with people they care about.
I empathize with these pleadings but also think about how the values of the MAGA movement have consistently been on display for nearly a decade. People supporting the movement and political ideology are not doing so by accident. They do so because, on some level, their lived experiences and values align with the movement. Â
Some Trump supporters know exactly who he is and support him BECAUSE OF IT while others simply see shared values in the messages of the MAGA movement. Some of our family members, current and former friends, acquaintances, and coworkers just need to feel connected with others who share their values and MAGA gives them that.
There are a lot of complexities to our divided nation and I suspect psychologists, sociologists, economists, political analysts and scholars of every stripe will be dissecting it for decades. I donât know the answer but it lies in tapping into our shared values. I believe the key is understanding that values and beliefs can and will change over time with our lived experiences.Â
I encourage looking for shared values in other people, even those we believe donât share our values. That shared value may be rooted in LGBTQ+ Allyship when we remember that a total of 62.1% of the adult United States population self-identify as either an Ally or a member of the LGBTQ+ Community.Â
Bursting Through was created to highlight our shared humanity while not walking away from, denying, or ignoring the clear differences. While we currently do that through the lens of Allyship for the Queer Community we all need Allies and we all want to connect as humans, share our experiences, and celebrate our uniqueness.
The impact of reaching out to those we care about to understand where they are cannot be measured but can be felt. Differences that separate us are not new, but currently, too much of our collective consciousness seems to be focused on the divides. Â
Maybe if we all tap into our Active Allyship values and apply them through and beyond the LGBTQ+ lens, we can connect with others in a new way. We might learn we have more aligned values than we thought.Â
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