When I was in college I regularly attended counseling sessions at the (be shocked) the counseling center. Every time I went I had to fill out a form identifying who I was, how I was feeling etc etc. The form asked me to identify my gender. Each time I would cross out gender, write sex, and then write random responses like meat popsicle, or ask why it was important, or explain the difference between sex and gender. I did this for years, until one day the form said sex instead of gender. My counselor asked me if I noticed when I walked into her office. She had noticed my responses, and how much the form bothered me.

Because there are more than two genders. Because I don’t just “identify” outside of those two genders, I am an androgynous person. This is a fact. Your opinion of me doesn’t change the reality of who I am; what I am.
I bring this up because I had to fill out government forms, and crossed out gender, replaced the term with sex, and left the definition in the margin. The person who reads it probably won’t care, but it is important.

It’s important because people are being beaten and murdered for just being themselves. Because, as you read this, you are friends with me, someone who doesn’t exist as either male or female. You’ve read my poetry. I’ve hugged you. I’ve laughed and cried with you. I risk my life, educate myself, and show up in the dead of night in order to save yours. And it is not okay to make me an exception to bigotry and ignorance. Just because you like me, or love me, doesn’t mean you are not accountable.

I don’t ask for people to become advocates, or completely understand. I don’t expect you next to me at protests or marches. I expect to be treated like a human being. To be treated like my existence, my life, has the same worth as your own.

I’m not a monster to feared. I love. I love deeply, and honestly. My heart beats; I breathe. I laugh, and cry, and I dream.

I am who I am, and that’s the greatest honor I can achieve.

So please tell me what can be wrong with that?