Illustrated by Steph Liu (She/Her)
categories, categories, categories
boy or girl
male or female
gay or straight
the world loves to categorize,
put us in a box
absolve us of who we are
diminish our rainbow splattered painting
into a blank, white canvas.
rip out our individuality, our queerness,
make us conform to the “normal”
and morph us into the person we’re expected to be.
“dress like a girl!”
“be a man!”
“love the opposite gender!”
society says.
but as queer people, we reject the normal
tear it up to shreds,
twist it in, out, sideways
and everything in-between
until the binary is a spectrum:
not fixed, but fluid.
until we’ve created our own definition of
who we are and who we love.
our own way of being,
existing in a world that seeks to erase our identity.
as queer people, we resist and redefine,
becoming someone beyond the categories,
the binaries, the boxes that we’re unwillingly forced into.
not playing the socially constructed roles of a man or woman,
but just existing as a human.
existing as our unapologetic selves
nothing more, nothing less.
redefining our identity is our form of liberation.
our form of resistance.
Credits:
Author: Laila Marie (She/Her)
Artist: Steph Liu (She/Her)
Copy Editors: Emma Blakely (They/She/He), Bella (She/They)