You were born this way

 

"Don't hide yourself in regret, just love yourself, and you're set
I'm on the right track, baby, I was born this way"
— Lady Gaga, Born This Way

Continued from yesterday...
Today I pulled the Eight of Cups. This card is often seen as a card of heartbreak. But, that's not the whole picture, as I see it. This eight echoes the Strength card (the eight card in the Major Arcana) in the element of water, the element of love. It is a card of strength. Typically, in this eight, a person is walking away from love that does not work for them.
I grew up in a time when any deviation from cultural normativity — where gender, romantic or sexual minorities (GSRM) were pathologized (considered mentally ill) and/or criminalized. But, of course, that didn't stop people who were gay (for example) from being gay. Because, being queer is not a disease and it should not be a crime!
I am invoking The Messenger. We love who we love and how we love, no matter how the culture frames that. It's important in life, I have learned, to give yourself space to learn yourself and who you are so you can be happy and, if you are a GSRM, you can communicate that to others so they can have agency to make informed choices. Listen to the Messenger, be the messenger, "don't hide yourself in regret, just love yourself, and you're set."
--
As always when I speak of life, love and Tarot I speak only for myself. This reading is part of my Divination/Manifestation Practice.

The 8 of Cups is from The Modern Love Tarot, by Ethony
The Messenger is from Next World Tarot, by Cristy C. Road