Labels. Not just for your clothes...

I’ve been thinking a lot about labels lately. Kind of a are they necessary, can they change, should they change, how important are they to identity as a whole? I know that finding a word to fit what people are looking for in life is important; sometimes it’s what people search their whole lives for.

For a long time I was looking for something, anything to describe what I felt and once I finally found it I was relieved. But it faded after a while. Maybe it was the novelty of understanding or just realizing that fixing one thing wasn’t going to fix everything.

You see, I think that labels have a purpose to serve. They can be a part of an identity but they shouldn’t be everything that an identity hinges upon. I know a few people where their label that they have taken upon themselves is all that matters, it’s their whole self. I know that having the label has given them peace and all that, but I just think that there is more to life than just labels.

I think that actions, and a person’s general life means more than a label. We see in the news or on social media platforms every day where some cis-het everything but straight phobic numbskull gets off on terrorizing the LGBT. They have the own straight ‘Murica label and yet it doesn’t stop them from being a really shitty person. And this extends to the LGBT community too. There are some that consider themselves gatekeepers to keep a sense of purity within the community. These people are also shitty.

Labels are a lot like everything else. It isn’t the label (or lack thereof) that is the issue, it’s the people behind them. They’re a conduit to change and progress and until people realize that we’re going to continue to have issues.

There are so many things than can become too much of a good thing. I live most of life being not accepted for a part of me. Given the fact that my family doesn’t even come close to really accepting LGBT culture (and honestly, I've accepted that about them so it doesn’t make it such a huge deal) I don’t even explain the whole asexuality concept with them. But I think if I held to my gay asexual label and let that define everything I was or could ever be, it would destroy my to not be accepted. It’s kind of a form of self-preservation at some point, separating myself into multiple boxes instead on one box. Instead of one label that defines me, I have many.

I’m pretty happy right now with all of the decisions that I’ve made concerning my own labels and identity. I’ve come to the conclusion that labels aren’t going to be the end all be all for me. For someone else, it might be; but not for me. I just feel like there’s more to me than just who I want to potentially be with. And for now, that all I need to know. Everything else will work out in it’s own time frame.

#asexuality #labels #family