“You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family,” the old adage goes.
If we are lucky, we are born into a family that is understanding, loving and supporting. For most of us LGBTQ+ Ethiopians, this is unfortunately not the case. Our families, even when they are well meaning, are often the first to act against us and in ways that harm us.
Fortunately for us, as queer people, we have learned resilience and ways to resist the hate and marginalization that is a constant in our lives. One of the ways we have learned to resist is by creating our own communities. In the tradition of queer people all over the world, Ethiopian queer people have long created their own chosen families.
Chosen families are defined as “nonbiological kinship bonds, whether legally recognized or not, deliberately chosen for the purpose of mutual support and love”.
Who is in our chosen family? How do we create them? What benefits do they provide us? How can we make them stronger? How do we celebrate them? These questions and more will be the focus of the latest issue of Nisnis scheduled to be published this week.
We hope you will enjoy it and find it encouraging and uplifting.
Please follow the link for past issues of Nisnis: Issue 1, Issue 2, Issue 3, Issue 4
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Published by Queer Ethiopia
"Queer family" is an alternative space created by a group of queer Ethiopian women. It is designed to be a space for a diverse group of Ethiopian queer women whose sexual and gender identifications vary. It includes cis and trans women who may be lesbian, bisexual or asexual. This is a space where the experiences of queer people takes center stage. We hope to include personal experiences from our daily lives as queer people, various stories, interviews, original artwork and poetry. We hope it will also serve as a place where Ethiopians in Ethiopia and Ethiopians in the diaspora come as themselves to explore and create an online community.
If you would like to send us something, please send us an email via etqueerfamily@gmail.com
«ኩዊር ኢትዮጵያ» የተለያዩ ፆታዊና ወሲባዊ ዝንባሌ ላላቸው ኢትዮጵያዊ ኩዊር ሴቶች እንዲሆን ታስቦ በኩዊር ሴቶች የተመሠረተ አማራጭ ምኅዳር ነው። ይኽውም ሌዝቢያን፣ ባይሴክሽዋል ወይም ኤሴክሽዋል የሆኑ ሴቶችንንና ትራንስ ሴቶችን ያካትታል። ይህ ምኅዳር የኩዊር ማኅበረሰብ ታሪክ እና የሕይወት ልምድ ትልቅ ሥፍራ የሚይዝበት ነው። እንደ’ኩዊር ማኅበረሰብ የዕለት ተዕለት ሕይወታችንን ገጠመኞች፤ የተለያዩ ሰዎችን የግል ታሪኮች፤ ቃለ-
መጠይቆች እንዲሁም ሥነ-ጥበባትን እንደምናካትት ተስፋ እናደርጋለን። ከነዚህ በተጨማሪም በኢትዮጵያ ውስጥ እና በዳያስፖራ ለሚገኙ ኢትዮጵያውያን ቤተሰቦች ራሳቸውን ሆነው
የሚመጡበት የበይነ-መረብ ማኅበረሰብ መድረክ ሆኖ እንዲያገለግል ማስቻል ፍላጎታችን ብቻ ሣይሆን ጥረታችንም ጭምር ነው።
etqueerfamily@gmail.com
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