TW: mention of rape

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They say: It doesn't matter if you're gay or straight, white or black, man or woman!

I think: This is a nice dismissal. This is a nice way to undermine my identity. This is a nice way to erase people. This is a nice way of saying; I would rather pretend the differences don't exist than accept them.

They say: Don't fight fire with fire!

I think: When you condemn someone to a pyre it's not their fault when their kicking feet knock a stick towards you.

When you let someone burn their whole life they are allowed to hope their embers fly to you.

They say: Things get better!

I think: For who? For the homeless youth? The correctively raped? The victims of conversion therapy?

It may get better, but for many it is too late.

They say: Why does everything have to be gay? Why can't it just be about the story?

I think: I deserve as much as you. I deserve the last kiss in a teen drama and the eternally angry old couple on a sitcom. I deserve children's books and adventurers and princesses and dumb romantic comedies. I deserve more than a single stereotype to represent the whole of who i am.

I deserve to see myself.

I think: My identity is a joke to you, my gender a slur, my body something to be disrespected.

I think: You take and you take and you take, and when we finally gather our voices to scream that we are starving, you shout over us.

I think: Who i am is a target on my back and glass in my heart but i'm never going to pull it out with pliers. They are my cross to bear, and i'd rather carry it than any whip.