IN THE KEY OF Q

Claiming What Feels Impossible

“Worthy. What a thing to claim.”

Eric Terino quotes these lyrics from queer artist Mary Gauthier during his chat with In the Key of Q, letting the words hang in the air with all their complicated weight. It’s a seemingly simple statement—I am worthy—but for many LGBTQ+ people, particularly those navigating mental health struggles, it can feel like the most radical claim imaginable.

In a world that still regularly questions the validity of queer existence, simply declaring one’s own worthiness becomes a profound act of resistance. For Eric, a folk artist whose musical journey has been inseparable from his mental health challenges, this has been hard-won understanding.

“I have been very hard on myself,” he admits, “and I have been one to immediately turn to the negative and to say there is something unworthy about me because of XYZ.”

This tendency toward self-criticism will sound familiar to many in our community. From subtle microaggressions to outright violence, queer people regularly absorb messages suggesting our fundamental unworthiness. The straight path—marriage, children, stability—is presented as the default narrative of a successful life. Deviations can feel like failures rather than valid alternatives.

The Cost of Hiding

Eric is committed to authenticity in his music and it stands in contrast to what Eric calls “gay icons” who remained closeted for much of their careers. While acknowledging everyone’s right to privacy, he questions how artists who actively concealed their sexuality can be considered queer heroes: “There’s no shame in being uncomfortable with talking about your personal life or your sexuality, but then you can’t be held up to this level of being some kind of gay icon.”

He continues, “That’s just stifling the core of yourself to please others. And if we all went about our lives like that, we’d be building a society of lies.”

Finding Worth Through Creation

For Eric, music has been both lifeline and vehicle for self-acceptance. His latest album, “Innovation of Grave Perversity,” was created during the height of lockdown—a period that forced many of us to confront our isolation in new ways.

“Through the making of this record and writing it,” Eric explains, “I was able to shift my perspective to one of positivity.” The creation process itself became a journey toward self-worth, allowing him to “extend the same graciousness and kindness that we extend to strangers and to our friends and our family, to ourselves.”

A Quiet Revolution

What makes Eric’s music and perspective so valuable isn’t grand political statements or showy activism. It’s the quiet insistence that even in isolation, even through mental health struggles, even on paths that look nothing like what we once imagined for ourselves—we remain worthy.

This isn’t the kind of queer representation that makes headlines. It won’t be featured in corporate Pride campaigns or celebrated in glossy magazine spreads. It certainly wouldn’t earn a Pret rainbow sandwich. But for many in our community—particularly those battling illness, disability, or circumstances that keep them from the visible centers of queer culture—it may be far more meaningful.

In claiming his own worthiness despite agoraphobia and other challenges, Eric offers a powerful reminder: queerness isn’t just about who we love or how we identify. It’s also about finding ways to value ourselves in a world that often tells us we shouldn’t.

“I am worthy,” Eric says. “And I think a lot of people in our community really struggle with that. Accepting that feeling that.” 

And it sad that I have seen this self-doubt spreading so much beyond the queer community. It seems the world is filled with smiles on Instagram, and crashes of despair once the post is made.

This struggle isn’t accidental. It reflects how profoundly unworthiness has been integrated into many queer people’s sense of self—through religious condemnation, family rejection, schoolyard bullying, and countless other experiences that explicitly or implicitly questioned our right to exist as we are.

And sometimes, that’s the most revolutionary act of all.

Listen to Eric’s episode here.

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