30/06/2022
To celebrate and mark , weāre proud to spotlight our Senior Designer, , who speaks openly about what means to him. šš³ļøāš
āIn 2012, Frank Ocean, a musician I love, came out via a screenshot uploaded to Tumblr. He empowered a generation to tell their own stories of q***rness, including myself.
At the time, I was 19 and had recently come out as gay to my parents ā I was told to wait and figure it out later. They explained that āthe world isnāt kind to people like meā. I felt silenced and scared ā Iād lost the initial feeling of hope that many q***r people experience when they start to understand their sexuality.
I had my first boyfriend at the time. I was so in love but couldnāt share my excitement about it. I was so scared to talk about my love, and I started to concentrate only on the negative things that Iād been told previously. I stopped seeing the beauty in the world around me, for fear it would hurt me. As a result that I started to harbour feelings of depression for the first time in my life.
I came across Frankās post one day and it felt like an awakening. He wrote: āBy the time I realized I was in love, it was malignant. It was hopeless. There was no escaping, no negotiating with the feeling. No choice. It was my first love, it changed my life.ā I saw myself in his words and for the first time felt validated ā it felt like someone else had wrote my story.
Iām thankful for the brave people, like Frank Ocean, that have come before me for speaking openly. Q***r youth that come after me, are less likely to have experiences like mine and itās this that inspires me to live my most honest and authentic life. This is why q***r representation matters to me.
10 years on, I still battle with depression and the support I have at J2 is unparalleled to any place Iāve worked previously. Iād like to thank J2 for creating a workplace where Iām surrounded by people whose lives look like mine and where Iām able to be my most healthy and authentic self.
Happy to everyone, whatever your world looks like xā
š ***r