Everything Is Brilliant

NIP NIP HOORAY! 

Check out my full top surgery reveal! 

Fun fact: Did you know that a light google search shows that the original proverb comes from a homosexual Greek poet in the 1950s?

I didn’t put a lengthy caption beneath my post stating all the things we got to shout and fight for as we marched among a sea of tens of thousands of people. I didn’t get to detail the speakers I heard, the women I shook hands with, and the amount of gratefulness that I felt that I could be there in the heart of the South and see this kind of uprising – I simply posted a picture holding up a sign, stating that yesterday’s march felt like the best (and potentially only time) i would sacrifice my healing that I spent thousands of dollars and countless of years waiting for. I don’t feel the need to explain why a Mexican proverb (that is actually misattributed, which I had heard prior to this discussion during a queer studies class in college and as queer identifying person that makes this message doubly resounding) was what I chose, being that many people quote others all the time, that I am aware of the source (s), and I am Mexican which you stated in your second response was necessary for using this proverb on a sign (which I don’t agree with). i put a short and sweet caption because I felt a picture with the setting (a women’s march in TX), full of people of all identities (featuring me, a trans person who happens to still have a uterus, meaning my reproductive rights are still very much in the hands of the government and i am seen by many, especially in my state, as my gender assigned at birth) amongst thousands of others, with what just so happened to be a rainbow flag in the background, quoting a statement (powerful within the Mexican resistance) was worth a thousand words.

I wasn’t there for just one cause, I was there in solidarity for many causes in the heart of TX that is currently passing anti-trans legislations, drafting up anti-LGBTQ bills, wants to control women’s bodies, and where I grew up and am from that has people scared of this proposed wall and deportations and their rights as citizens being stripped away. My grandfather was born in Mexico and his parents moved him here as a young child, yes, but I do not have every aspect of my being stated in my tumblr bio (note that atheist, queer, and even my preferred pronouns are missing from my profile description) and I don’t feel like I need to, nor does that determine my validity. 

As a trans person I was frankly appalled at your willingness to call someone out based on their appearance, my life has been constantly spent determining my worth by how well I pass. I do not think you should ever make an assumption based on any facet of someone’s appearance, because you do not know their story. 

What I do know is that when people asked me about my sign I said it was a Mexican proverb, that I thought it was appropriate for all of those standing in resistance that have been repeatedly oppressed, and it sparked discussions and we exchanged encouragements and debates and I saw many other quotes and moments and individuals that struck fire in my heart as well as restored a little bit of my faith in humanity in what has been a bleak last few months.

And now this post that I felt was powerful, my first moment shirtless in a Red State (right outside the courthouse that changed my gender marker ironically enough), brand new scars bearing my vulnerability as a show of solidarity, hands raised despite doctors orders because these women were marching hands up for the whole world to see so i sure as hell was going to also, surrounded by women and individuals who have known more oppression and ceilings than I, and many people that I could and will only aspire to be more like, holding a sign high above my head with words that I believe ring true for many (including my fellow Mexican Americans many of whom were there, and there were dozens of other signs bearing this same quote), has been co-opted because you assumed i was some ignorant white boy at a march, and good for me that i can take my shirt off and love myself. 

all that being said, if there is a march in DIRECT resistance to Trump’s anti Mexican and anti immigrant stance, you can bet that I will try my damnedest to be there as well, (but don’t be mistaken that was a leading topic of discussion amongst the speakers prior the march and a leading part of the chants and demonstrations throughout).