I've thought a lot about this over the last two plus decades of BEing queer. I love the sentiment of this as I recognize how Queer must be created in order to exist. That act of creation CAN BE resistance. Thus, queer CAN BE resistance.

I believe sometimes creativity is just simply creativity. And sometimes queer is just queer. And it really does not need to be any more than that. Things don't fit neatly into boxes and so much of the counter narratives I read (unintentionally) create new boxes. This has come up time and again working intergenerationally and cross movements. There is tension / contradiction between existence IS resistance, existence IS existence, resistance IS resistance. All are true and sometimes people (queers / artists / comrades / neighbors) just want to BE. And in many ways merely BEing (without over analysis / critique / meaning making / justification) can be the queerest of things to do.

This truth (of many truths) can generate dissonance when people who have been marginalized / harmed / brutalized / impacted by oppressive systems do not want to name their BEing as resistance. If, as the Tao reads, “naming is the origin of all things,” then, naming one’s BEing as resistance names one’s existence as an oppositional force. Again, this may be a truth (as well). And one may not experience / understand their own force as “in opposition to”. In fact, one may experience / understand it as movement towards a destination / vision / dream / reality. Or one may also experience / understand their BEing as entirely fleeting and inconsequential. Or…

Aka (as my dear comrade Kapi’olani Lee told me) “Sometimes a cat video is just a stupid cat video, and that's all it needs to be.” (In relation to a conversation about youth media and social justice.)