Qweer Eye Don't Lie

*This post is inspired by the hours I've spent in the past few days scrolling through friends' FB photos and picking out all the queer folks I see.*

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I was born with gay-dar--being able to find gay folks based on their mannerisms, affectations, overt body language, etc. It's really based off of mainstream stereotypes of (white, middle-class) gay ways of being. It also kind of failed when I spent a summer in Spain, simply because the men 'do' masculinity in a completely different way than in the States.  And that's when my Qweer Eye began to develop....

Fast forward three years and here I am, able to pick out a qweer in a crowded room, or in a FB photo, based on a few factors (secrets I will only pass on to my apprentices, so don't ask), but mostly from their eyes.  There's something in a qweer person's eyes--the confusion of living in a society that assumes and forces heterosexuality; the fear of being 'outed' and the very real consequences of losing jobs, family, children, housing, community, etc; the struggle towards self-love.  

It's all very real and really hard. And a lot of these struggles are masked.

But after working so hard in creating my own mask for most of my life--and working hard at dismantling it these past few years--I See other folks' masks very easily. And since our masks are created to conceal similar struggles, it's easy to See through them. 

Besides, masks generally do not cover one's eyes. And the eyes are, after all, the window into the Soul.

And queer eyes don't lie.