Policies

• We all have different experiences, privileges, challenges, capabilities, responsibilities, strengths, and struggles. We all come from different backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives. Some of us more so, or less so than others. For example, I have been very privileged in always having shelter, friends, family, education, white skin, and fairly stable environment, yet struggled with memorization, shyness, fluctuating weight, gendered differences, and bullying, have been assaulted and raped from a young age, then had an accident contributing to disorganization, memory challenges, processing issues, and inhibitions. No one needs to feel sorry for me, but I prefer they understand some of where I am coming from, and how that colors my views and experiences. Some of us do not speak english as a first language, may have struggled at home, at school, and in many other places and situations, may have come to those realities at different points in life, may have had few successes, or found successes in different ways. We all come to this point with our own realities, and all of those things will influence who we are, how we feel, what we are good at or not so good at, and what we understand or don’t understand well or at all.
  • None of us should try to project our experience, or perspective onto another (not even our children), cause we simply cannot know what it is to be that person at this time. 
  • Yet, we can try to put ourselves in others’ shoes, given our own experiences. Try to listen, grapple with, and understand what another person is expressing. Try to empathize (see things from another’s perspective), sympathize (share or understand the sentiments and ideas, show support, or agree with something), or have compassion (relate to someone’s situation and want to find a way to relieve their suffering), even if it’s for another’s very different circumstances, or realities, and even if we don’t fully understand.

Promotion of or advocating violence, bullying, hate speech, racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism of any kind will not be tolerated.

• If that is too difficult there are plenty of other online venues available.
• That being said, history of our communities and people within and outside our communities, may include a great deal of violence, bullying, hate speech, racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, and many other forms of discrimination.
  • These issues may be discussed, represented, or hinted at for education purposes, or to present a person’s real lived experiences.
  • Air on the side of discussing the issue or challenges, without attacking, harassing, violating, or shaming people or individuals.
  • Still, if it is discriminatory to a person, people, or group, don’t do it or say it. It may be challenging for some to avoid discrimination, but it is possible. The same for offensive behavior and language. Try to avoid being offensive, and if someone says you are being offensive, something stated is offensive, or discriminatory, take in what they said. Listen, think about it, look into what the person stated or was offended by, try not to get defensive (I know that is easy to do). Try to find some history about it and why it might be offensive or discriminatory to some people. 

• While you can ask questions for education or out of curiosity, but it is better to look into it yourself, and try to find out why a particular issue might be problematic or complicating to certain people, even if they seem okay to others. That simple action takes some of the stress, anxiety, heavy lifting, and energy off of those it actually harms, and others, like their loved ones, so they are not constantly or repeatedly having to educate everyone they come across who doesn’t understand, and so those offenses are not repeatedly contributing to more unnecessary harm. People being offended easily is not a new thing. People have always found certain things offensive and discriminatory, always had pet peaves, always found certain things rude, inhospitable, or disrespectful. They may be more willing to express those feelings, find more that is problematic given their history, experience, knowledge or environment, but these offenses and feeling of discrimination are not new, and in many cases they’re not more extreme.

While we at Diverse Spectrums hope to provide more information and understanding about some issues that you may be new to or unfamiliar with, we can only cover so much, and have limited time and energy to devote toward educating others. Top that off none of us are arbiters of all knowledge on any given topic. We each have only so much experience, education, or understanding on any given thing, experience or group. So ask questions if you’re finding it difficult to get answers or understand what you have found, and maybe if you’re questioning the credibility of information, but if it isn’t harmful to you, and you can find the information, or it’s already covered somewhere else on this website at least try to look it up.

Many of the topics addressed here or elsewhere on this website, can also be found using a simple search on the internet, at the library, in books, videos and other formats. While you still need to be careful what sources you are using, ensure sources are credible, trustworthy, up to date, not discriminatory, or invalidated, most of us can find a great deal of information out without a lot of extra work. Though, finding that information may be time consuming, and you may end up going down several rabbit holes in the process.