They Don't Owe You Their Story: Conceptualizing Racialized Queer Care through Protective Spaces

Guided by a love politic and centrifugal intersectionality we demonstrate how whiteness, homonormative whiteness, and white heteronormativity alienates racialized queer students in both 2SLGBTQ + and racialized counterspaces within the university. The tensions experienced by racialized queer students, do not stem from the existence of these spaces, rather they are rooted within institutional notions of diversity. It is through this examination that we present our conceptualization of protective space. Protective space builds from the reconceptualization of safe spaces as defined by the Roestone Collective. Protective spaces are rooted in a love politic and involves moving forward from guilt to meaningful action embedded in accountability to create love-centered solutions. These principles can be used in both individual action and collective organizing. The conceptualization mainly builds on the experiences of sexually diverse identities; therefore, we encourage researchers and practitioners to expand and build upon this work.