Protect Your Heart, Femme Leadership and Hyper-Accountability by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

The purpose of Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s piece is to tell her story of abuse and struggle as a femme woman of color with disabilities, so that others who have shared experiences and identities could both see they are not alone and change the negative mantra and community abuse that comes along with these identities. Piepzna-Samarasinha’s focus was on her experience of being a leader in social justice work and QTBIPOC community and how she was abused and drained in ways many middle to upper class masculine able-bodied white people aren’t. This piece both gets to share the story of and have healing affects on the author, while connecting to others who are experiences similar hardships and telling them they don’t deserve or have to stay around people who are toxic and abusive. I know I’m using the word abusive a lot, but that is so much of what Piepzna-Samarasinha experienced along with being disabled and living through chronic illness. This piece was so raw and that really connected with me. Most people go through at least one hardship in their lives and others especially those who are marginalized and oppressed go through of hardships on a monthly basis. I’m positive this story is not an isolated experience and I know this piece meant a lot to me, so I can only imagine how much it means to people who have even more in common with the experiences described. Overall the message take away I ended with was that Piepzna-Samarasinha is telling the reader they matter, their time and emotions matter and need to be prioritized, especially in many cases of femme leaders in social justice movements.