Embracing Emotions for Community and Connection

Leah passionately discusses the intersection of being queer, trans, and a witch, emphasizing the importance of joy as a form of resistance in challenging times. They share personal insights on community support, empowerment through witchcraft, and the celebration of trans identities. 

• Leah introduces their identity as a queer trans witch 
• The importance of recognizing privilege within identities 
• Reassurance that trans individuals are not alone in their struggles 
• Trans joy as a significant act of resistance against oppression 
• Advocating for happiness amidst societal challenges 
• Building sustainable activism rooted in love and community 
• The empowering role of witchcraft in personal and collective identity 
• Witchcraft as a means of self-discovery and freedom 
• Encouragement to explore spirituality through witchcraft 
• Celebrating the connections and resilience within the trans community

Chapters

• 0:06 Trans Joy
• 12:21 Embracing Hope and Joy

Transcript

Kimothy: 0:06

Welcome back to your Average Witch, where, twice a month, we talk about witch life, witch stories, and sometimes a little witchcraft. If you weren't aware, I am taking the month of February off and I offered my platform to anyone who had something to say, and one of my bees, Leah, took me up on it. And so introducing Leia, who has something to say, as a queer trans witch. If you have something you want to say, feel free to reach out. You can email me at youraveragewitchpodcast at gmailcom and we can talk about you doing something like this. Regular episodes will start back on March 4th, so be sure to come back for that. And now here's Leah.

Leah: 0:53

Hello everyone, my name is Leah, I use they/them pronouns and I'm a queer witch. Thank you so much, Kim, for letting me borrow your wonderful your average width podcast for this very special segment. I have been offered the opportunity to jump on here and share some of my thoughts with you guys about being trans and being a witch and being queer and being a witch, and also perhaps share some light in these we all know quite troubling times. As I mentioned, I use they/them pronouns. I am a gender fluid person and I have been a witch for now about five years, and I've been out as trans for close to 10 years now. So been trans for quite a bit, quite a bit before finding witchcraft. And I wanted to jump on here because it felt important in these times to just offer perhaps a voice and a perspective as a trans person, and I am very aware of the privilege I also live with. I am a white person and do not have any disabilities or other intersectional identities. Truly, being queer and being trans is the core of it, and so I very much recognize that the situation I am in is not at all the same situation as a BIPOC queer person at the moment, or a disabled, queer person, or a mix of any other kinds of identities, and I wanted to take a moment to honor that. So I feel like I should start with reassuring you that, first of all, you're not alone. Perhaps we hear it almost too often, but I feel like it's still important to say you're not alone. Trans people have always been here and will always be here. It's almost silly to me the tactics that are being employed about erasing our presence from history, from monuments, from informational segments. We have always been here and will always be, no matter how many times these same kinds of attempts have been made at erasing us. Sure, it makes things a lot more complicated, it makes things much more difficult to navigate for us in life, but it doesn't make us go away. We're still here and we're going to stay here, and we are not alone.

Leah: 3:37

The voices that wish to hurt us right now feel quite loud, mostly because they're being amplified, because these people are not afraid of consequences for speaking up at the moment, or because they're coming from people in power, positions of power. However, loudness doesn't equal numbers. There is a bunch of people and perhaps I could argue, an even bigger bunch of people who supports the queer community and the trans people, and sometimes it might be a little awkward, but it's still support and it's still well-intentioned. And these people are still here. They still exist, just as we do. Loudness doesn't equal numbers, so I think that the bravest thing we can do in this moment is being joyful.

Leah: 4:48

That is also something you might have already heard, but trans joy is resistance, and here's what it means. You as a queer, as a trans person, as a BIPOC person, as a disabled person. Being happy is not what oppressive systems of power want from you right now. They want you to feel isolated, they want you to feel despair. They want you to have worsening mental health that will leave you unable to speak up. Take action, defend yourself, build a life, stay alive. Trans joy is resistance. You being happy, you laughing in these times, you taking care of yourself, is the most powerful thing you can do. And, of course, there's plenty of ways to take more direct actions: community support, legal advocacy, community action and community work. Of course, there's all these options, but make sure to nourish your hope in the center of it all, because it's what keeps you going. I know that the anger and the fear is a very powerful motivator, and I've been there. I've done that. I have taken action based on anger and fear, and it works for a while. It does, but it's not sustainable and these fights are long-winded, they take time, they take years and years, they take energy, and so might as well have a basis that is founded in love and joy and hope and resilience and the beauty of the trans community.

Leah: 7:00

Let's celebrate our existence and laugh in the face of those who believe that all of this will make us dwindle. It will not. It will make us spark brighter, shine brighter, because we know how precious we are, we know how much valuable we are, we know how incredible our life experiences are. We bring so much to the world in terms of different perspectives. We think of things in completely different ways, because we've been brought to these questions that most of the population don't have to think about, and that's okay, that's okay for them, that's okay. But we have that sense of questioning and exploring the meanings of gender and social constructs and identity and knowing oneself and celebrating life milestones, at whichever age we get to them.

Leah: 8:06

And celebrating life because we know that not all of us are blessed with it, because we know that not all of us are blessed with it. Some of us are not going to go as far down the road as others for a variety of different reasons. May it be mental health or lack of support or health issues. And so we appreciate these things immensely and deeply. We create bonds and friendships that go beyond being friends, because it is about deeply knowing one's person, having been on that journey of discovery and identity, and staying with them, knowing them inside out, being with them when it's harsh and being with them when it's wonderful. We are blessed to have these experiences. Please always remember that your transness is a blessing, it's a gift, and I know it doesn't feel like it sometimes, but it really is. Let's share that gift. Let's share that gift, let's share that light, let's make this place a better place, because that's exactly what we know how to do. We've done it for ourselves, we've done it for friends, we've done it for communities. Let's keep doing it.

Leah: 9:33

There is so much power in that knowledge and that community, and I think I want to take a minute as well to perhaps share what witchcraft has brought me in all of this journey, because, as I mentioned, I had been out for a while before ever coming to witchcraft, even though it's always been a part of my life in one way or another, as it often is, but it still brought me something that I don't think I would have found somewhere else. I have always been a very spiritual person, have always searched for that connection to the divine, the otherness of the universe, and I think that what is wonderful about witchcraft and the different approaches related to it is the absence of such oppressive systems of power behind it. There are some parts of witchcraft that can sometimes feel like it, but it's not as solidly embedded in the very thinking of the practice, of the spirituality of the faith that reflects of oppression and diminishing oneself. That's not what witchcraft is about. Witchcraft is about power and internal power and knowing oneself and discovering your own gifts. Does that sound familiar?

Leah: 11:07

Discovering those gifts and sharing that power with others when you feel like it, and taking control of your destiny and your identity, and I feel that that's exactly why so many queer people and women navigate towards witchcraft. It gives us that agency of our own spirituality and that freedom to be and to explore and to do, and if that's something that you've been wondering about exploring, I would say give it a chance. There's nothing stopping you from turning back if you don't feel like it's right for you, but give it a try. Maybe you'll find something individual, something from your inner energy that you needed, or maybe you'll find community. Maybe, most likely, you'll find both. You'll find knowledge and ways to find about knowledge. So why not, if it's something that helps you feel strong and knowledgeable and in control not at all the times, of course, but most times and more than not?

Leah: 12:21

I think there's no harm in that, and I hope that this small segment today has managed to share some of the hope I do feel and the hope I see in my friends and my community and my family, and perhaps share some of that joy and inspired some of you to feel that way or to explore your own way to feel it. So, again, I wanted to very much thank him for sharing your platform, your wonderful platform, and I am sending the biggest hugs to all of you. Please take care of yourself. Allow yourself to cry and feel the pain and the rage when you need to, but they can't do anything about our laughter and our smile, see ya.

Kimothy: 13:14

I just want to thank Leah for speaking out and for speaking up and having the courage to do this, to record this for me and to speak out to everyone who needs to hear this. Leah will be on the show as a guest for the regular interview at some point in the future. We haven't worked out the scheduling yet, but make sure you come back and meet Leah the witch. Thanks for listening.