i am queer.
i am my school’s gsa
i am asking people’s pronouns
i am a sign on my teachers door that says “all are welcome here”
i am a couple who can’t hold hands on the street without being hate crimed
i am a protest against supreme court justices who live in a world where 7.1% of the population they swore to protect cannot live their lives being who they are unless they are behind the bars of a jail cell and don’t think to do anything to change it
i am the singular pride flag swaying lonely in the wind of a small suburban town in connecticut
i am millions of people who just want to be left alone but who’s mere existence spawns twitter debates with 80-year-olds
i am a romance novel with cartoon drawings of two women on the cover
i am mistranslated bible verses used in arguments against queer rights
i am a film company who swears their characters are queer but won’t let them say so on screen
i am a rainbow being graffitied on the side of the white house while our president sits inside and watches our rights being taken away from a cishet pedestal
you can take away our rights but
you cannot take away my rainbow because it is not just a pin on my backpack it is tattooed on my heart
and like all of my queer friends,
i am not just one voice, i am millions
but you just hear one because you are blocking out all the others
who have been saying this for a hundred years before me