For the Past, For the Future | Teen Ink

For the Past, For the Future

May 1, 2023
By danikosidowski GOLD, Sussex, Wisconsin
danikosidowski GOLD, Sussex, Wisconsin
10 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Half of us—unwanted, rejected, othered.

  but that's just another day, isn’t it? 


The enemies throw the trans kids, the vulnerable, out on the streets.

No place to go but six feet below. 


They knock us down one by one.

State by state. 


Fear cripples me as I sit watching the “leader”  strip away my friends’ healthcare.

Bullied into oblivion. 


Am I next?


I thought they said the future shines bright.

  but all I see are storm clouds thundering in.


I wonder what the fight was all for.

Soldiers of the past—bloodied and bruised by bricks at Stonewall for it to be ripped away.


I imagine a life, a life where we are “normal.”

 with no need for the fight… 


But a life without the fight is a life without brightness

a life without passion

a life without community

a life without love


So I remember that there will be people that love me, and there will be people who dare not to love me. 


And for those who love me—I will fight on.


For Sylvia, for Marsha, for Candace

For the future, and for the past.


The author's comments:

With lines from “Health Care Professionals Who Are Transgender And Non-binary Are Changing the Exclusionary Health Care System” by Rachael Sorcher, a Pulitzer Center reporting project


Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.