Editorial: What does the future hold?
Welcome to the fourth edition of HeartCore – The Official Copenhagen Pride Magazine. Whether you’re a new reader or have followed along with our journey, we’re happy you’re here!
As always, we have selected a theme to tie together all our content, and this time we are peering into the FUTURE.
As LGBTI+ people, thinking about the future is a staple of our political battles. Looking ahead means looking towards the possibility of equal rights, less discrimination, and more freedom, whereas we often encounter hurt when looking back – while also recollecting the stones that were laid down, or thrown, to create the future we hope for.
The future can be a beacon of hope or it can be the cause of anxiety. We have felt that in abundance over the past year, with the days ahead being uncertain but filled with hope for when the world opens back up again. That is, if you were privileged enough to have experienced the world as open to begin with.
When we look forward, we get to dream about any future that we want. We get to imagine the world we want to live in, and the culture we want new generations to experience. We can demand a future of fairness and equality for all, and it is our prerogative to fight for it. That vision of the future, of a fair and equal society, makes the oftentimes grueling and frustrating campaigning for political change all worth it. We must also remember that we ourselves are living in the future imagined by the activists who came before us.
In this edition of HeartCore, you can read about the effects of lock-down on a fetish club and how they see themselves getting back on their feet (and all fours). You can learn about one student’s vision for an inclusive university and discover a queer reinterpretation of the Major Arcana tarot cards. The writers of HeartCore have investigated how nostalgia helps shape future trends, ways to imagine a happy future for oneself, and how the trans and queer revolution must be shaped by inclusivity and intersectionality.
The flowers are blooming and at this time of publishing the world too is opening. This is an occasion for joy and for imagining how we will fill the rest of this year with all the things we’ve sorely missed. But it is also an opportunity to revisit the kind of future we want. While a lot of barriers were raised last year, a lot of bridges were also built, and as we were pushed to rethink events and community engagement, we also learned a lot about accessibility and communities that extend across borders and time zones. We were also once again reminded that the most vulnerable parts of our community bear the brunt of every major societal crisis, and the consequences they face can not only be hurtful, but can also manifest in discrimination, racism, or violence. For us to fight for an equal future, we must also fight for an equal present for one and for all.
Happy reading!
The editorial staff at HeartCore
