Body Positivity And The LGBTQ+ Community

Pride month is a great time to celebrate the history and the accomplishments of the LGBTQ+ Community. However, we find that LGBTQ+ persons do not always carry pride for their own bodies and how they look as they are at a greater risk for eating disorders according to the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA).

It is time for the Queer Community to lift each other up and celebrate body positivity, self-love, and acceptance to ensure that every individual within the Community feels proud of who they are, inside and out.

If you are an ally or a member of the LGBTQ+ Community struggling with self-consciousness about your body, here are some tips to help build your body positivity and acceptance:

Positively you 

The key to fully loving and accepting yourself is to understand that you need to shift your negative perception of your body to a more kind, gentle and compassionate view of yourself. Nobody is perfect and striving to have the perfect body will keep you on the hamster wheel of unrealistic expectations for yourself and others. Aspiring for body positivity and not perfection will help you learn to appreciate your body and all the wonderful things it can do.

Recognize your worth

Your body, whether it meets an arbitrary social standard of beauty or not, does not dictate your worth as a human being. There is so much more to you than just your body and your appearance. Getting caught up in our looks can make us become vain and superficial and that can lead us to feeling empty and lost within ourselves. Make it a priority to recognize your worth and it’s also important to surround yourself with others who love and support you for you, rather than how they would like for you to be.

Invigorate yourself

To invigorate means ‘to give strength or energy to’ and so it’s crucial that you do this for yourself through self-care and self-compassion. Bullying and beating yourself up for not having the perceived perfect body is only going to spiral you down a negative path of low self-esteem and is that truly worth it? Being gentle with yourself will lead you to become more accepting of yourself and help you understand that there’s a difference between being in good health vs. having a perfect body. You don’t have to have a perfect body to feel good about yourself.

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Dare to be you

Strive to accept all the things that makes your body unique and become friends with all your perceived imperfections. Often the most difficult thing to do in life is to just be ourselves – our glorious imperfect selves. Choose to step out of your fear and have the courage to show the world your true and authentic self. Let your rainbow light shine!

Embrace all of you  

Self-acceptance is truly the critical component to body positivity and self-love. You will not be able to feel good about yourself without it. Striving for the perfect body or beating yourself up for not having the ideal body type, will only send you down the path of self-hatred and depression. Learn to lift yourself up and don’t outsource your self-esteem to measure up to the inauthentic standards of social media. Know that you are beautiful, you are loveable, and that you are enough!

Happy Pride!

Authored By 

Nicholette Leanza, LPCC-S

Nicholette is a faculty member at John Carroll University’s Clinical Counseling program, and she is also the host of the LifeStance podcast, Convos from the Couch.