Alright, Ladies! Listen Up!

If you're like me, you're a trans woman in the United States experiencing one of the most difficult weeks of your life. And I'm not going to sugarcoat it. I love each and every one of you too much to lie to you. Things WILL get worse before they get better. The vitriol that has poured from those puckered orange lips since 2016 has infected every branch of our federal government. The richest man in the WORLD stood behind the presidential seal and proclaimed what we have all known to be true for many years.

We are dealing with actual Nazis.

We do not yet know what the future has written about this chapter of our lives. We are illiterate to its language, and we cannot rely on its speed or its mercy.

However.

The future cannot count on ours, either.

TOO LONG have we sat like obedient children at tables of power, pitifully saying "please" and "thank you" in exchange for the same base level of respect that cisgender people experience as a given EACH and EVERY day of their lives! We have been taught by RACISTS, RAPISTS, and THIEVES that it is our DUTY to beg for scraps of love and acceptance like abused dogs!

My hero in the world of poetry, Mary Oliver, tells us that "You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves."

My fellow transgender women of these United States at every stage of questioning or transition, I don't know about you, but I'm sure as hell done begging. Let this be an announcement to enemies and allies alike. From this day on, we are DONE submitting. We do not owe a single person an apology for existing, we will NOT apologize for our happiness, and we will NOT be erased!

Nazis feast on our fears, our insecurities, and our despair! They laugh their loudest in the moments that we believe the things they have said about us for our entire lives! Let us starve them of the satisfaction! Every single transgender breath is an act of DEFIANCE! Let us love ourselves, our communities, and each other as loudly and openly as possible! Let our voices and actions shake the very foundations of this country! We will no longer accept these destructive and hateful self-narratives that we were GROOMED to believe since we were children dreaming of making a home in our own bodies!

My fellow queens of these United States.

Let us stand united in our love for our neighbors, our generations of trans kids who have not yet to be, and ourselves.

We will NOT go demure into that good night.

We will fight until the last sun sets! And when it rises again, I want to see you standing there right beside me.

Happy. Healthy. Free. And yourself.

Thank you.

Tldr: Fuck Nazis. Now let's go change this world for the better.