Almost Is Never Enough

Gatekeeping. What does it mean, and why is it turning the LGBTQIA+ community into an exclusive club?

- MIA CASTRO

It's Pride Month. With the LGBTQIA+ community celebrating loud and proud the sexuality, non-sexuality, and all the other beautiful parts of what one's identity can be, it makes sense for the community to be the most welcoming and accepting space f for anyone who is queer-at least, ideally, it should be.

But many queer individuals could probably recall a time when they were shamed and cast out from their own communities. There are stories about transwomen and men being barred from joining support groups because they weren't "real women or men"; non-binary people being overlooked; and, worst of all, there are some identities that are written off because they are deemed "too complicated." This is what is called "gatekeeping," a term used when people take it upon themselves to police the access or rights to an identity or to question the authenticity of an individual's lived experiences.

Voltaire, 23, who identifies as a gay man, shares that the rise of gatekeeping within the community can also be attributed to pop culture. Voltaire grew up in the Philippines but now lives in Los Angeles, California.

"Shows like RuPaul's Drag Race and Pose have helped us finally have a voice in social and mainstream media, so it can make us feel like we have the right to own the community's culture," he tells us. "But on the other hand, this also leads us to 'gatekeep' within the community and build a hierarchy. It's systematic and forces us to become separated rather than accepting of one another."