Without giving too much detail, I just wanted to comment on how big of a difference it makes when a health care professional makes a conscious effort to include you and your input in on the course of your treatment. Of course it comes down to professional expertise, but dealing with doctors who discussed options with me and let me have as much control as possible/appropriate over changes to medications, for example, has routinely been profoundly less stressful than situations in which I was given no choice nor say. I also respect that sometimes what I want may not be what's best for me/most effective, and because of my doctor's history of including me and educating me on every choice he/we made, I am comfortable trusting his judgement in such scenarios. I think that's what it comes down to: mutual communication, respect, and trust.

Far too often when people who have never experienced a certain type of discrimination meet someone who has been the victim of such discrimination (ie, a straight person in conversation with a gay person), they'll have this expectation that the marginalised individual is not only able to speak for an entire large and extraordinarily diverse community, but is willing to do so. We need to kill the expectation that it is anyone's obligation to justify their being to another and to educate said other on the complexities of their being/identity/community and the discrimination faced by members of their community. It is vital that we all be educating ourselves on the histories and experiences of people to whom we cannot relate so that we can approach all dialogues with the upmost empathy, accuracy, and understanding of each other and how to best support one another and make actual productive changes to oppressive societal structures.

I think this is such an important point; understanding history is integral to being able to fully understand and analyse contemporary society and the origins and evolution of all the systemic discrimination and oppressive nature of its institutions that act within/upon it. Furthermore, by applying a contemporary perspective to ancient material, we can find evidence of and amplify voices that were forcefully/intentionally silenced.