The message that I wanted to convey in my piece relates to the labels that can be seen in the queer community. While I believe that labels can be extremely helpful to help people express their identities, I believe that there is too much of a requirement put on labeling yourself when you are a member of the LGBTQIA+ community. Because of the skyrocketing of social media, young queer people are forced to come out in an age that excessively values labeling queer people; this idea is perpetuated not only by the straight community, but also from within the queer community. The need to label yourself adds so much stress and confusion to young queer people, while also putting them in a box. This heteronormative need to have a label is the same box that queer people have fought to exist outside of for decades, so why are we, as queer people, putting ourselves once again within the same four walls?

While working on this project, I tried to find good research about how it can be harmful; however, there is not much research that has been done in a non homophobic manner. As a queer person, I believe that labeling can be super beneficial, if that is something that the person wants, but it shouldn’t be required, which isn’t something that was shown often in research. I did find two articles that were interesting, that also focused on celebrities and society’s forcing them to come out. In addition to these articles, I take my own experience to be research, as I have lived a life of stressing over what to label both my gender and sexuality.