Throughout this entire process of writing for Culturs Magazine, I have been trying to connect the two worlds of Third Culture Kids and Globally Mobile Individuals with that of individuals who identify somewhere on the LGBTQQA+ spectrum. Each week, I shared stories about LGBTQ+ folks and events that have taken place on a global scale to shed some light on a community not often give the recognition it deserves. My hope has been to serve both identities with the proper justice and respect, while widening the perspectives about how the two intersect.
Though I am not a TCK, I am frequently burdened with itch to travel and see a world far larger than the one I have grown up in and see every day. My domestic worldview is small. I think this contributes to my constant feeling of urgency to explore and expand is integral to why I have taken such an interest in the TCK lifestyle. The ideology that an individual can be comprised of more than one culture, more so more than one identity, struck me as impossible, until I understood the many factors that contribute to the diverse identities this community of people possess.
The Third Culture Model, as displayed above, provides a better visual to the interest I am expressing. Not only does this subgroup of people have the perspectives and experiences of their first “home” of “passport” culture, but they also receive a second new and different perspective and experience through the various other locations and cultures they may have resided in around the world. The shared commonalities of both of these cultural understandings and the conglomeration from both the first culture and the second culture creates an expanded worldview that many domestic individuals may have a hard time understanding. That’s what makes this community of people so intriguing. Their diversity is hidden, much like that of people who identify somewhere outside of the heteronormative standard, which is why I sought to find more similarities between the two communities.
Throughout the next three videos, Lia Conger and I will explore the intersection between these two communities in an attempt to unify these identities for TCKs and LGBTQ+ people around the world. Lia and I made a series of videos discussing the connection between these two communities and asked others for their input. You can watch the first video here.
