Do No Harm But Take No Shit

my stream of consciousness:

Amandla Stenberg: non-binary actress and singer (The Hate U Give, The Hunger Games) [she/her; they/them]

Ezra Miller: genderqueer actor (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Justice League) [prefers he/him but is comfortable with all pronouns]

Chella Man: genderqueer YouTuber, actor & model (Titans) [he/him]

Brigette Lundy-Paine: non-binary actor (Atypical, The Glass Castle) [they/them]

Angel Haze: agender rapper & singer (Battle Cry, Cleaning out my Closet) [she/her; he/him]

Indya Moore: non-binary actor & model (Pose, Queen & Slim) [they/them]

Ruby Rose: genderfluid actress, model, talk show host, DJane (Batwoman, OitnB) [she/her]

Asia Kate Dillon: non-binary actor (Billions, OitnB) [they/them]

Quintessa Swindell: non-binary actor (Trinkets, Euphoria) [they, them]

Jonathan Van Ness: non-binary television personality, podcaster & hairdresser (Queer Eye) [prefers he/him but is also okay with they/them & she/her]

Liv Hewson: Nonbinary actor (Santa Clarita Diet, Let It Snow) [they/them]

Bex Taylor-Klaus: Nonbinary actor and voice actor [Voltron, Scream]

gerard way (he/they) - member of mcr

dorian electra (they/them) - singer

sonicfox (they/them) - esports player

Andrea Gibson (they/them): Non-binary slam poet and activist

switching between the same three apps for hours

not speaking to anyone for days at a time

listening to the same songs i have been listening to for 20 years

me:

Every day I get up. I go to work. I sell people things. There are fewer people coming through and they’re buying more because they’re stocking up or they haven’t been shopping in a month, but there are still lines, like always. There’s plexiglass between the cashiers and the customers, and no dividers, and we have to continually yell at people not to put their items on the belt until we’ve finished the previous transaction, and they ignore us or argue with us, same as always. The more rules we have, the more rules there are for people to ignore. And the longer it goes on, the more normal it gets. Pretty much no one thanks us for coming in to work anymore. People are starting to act like we should never, ever run out of an item. It’s just blanket assumed that we will have hand sanitizer and soap and toilet paper and people are shocked when we say we’re out.  But there are still ads on the TV in the break room telling us all to stay home and the more the customers ignore social distancing, the more management puts pressure on us to set a good example, until we’re expected to follow standards that are physically impossible.

The longer this goes on, the less ‘essential’ I feel.

And then I come home and get online as always and there are all of these people asking what you’re doing while you’re stuck in quarantine and coming up with fun things to do when you’re in quarantine and talking about what you’re going to do when this whole thing is over and you can finally, finally leave your house. Everyone just seems to assume that you, the person reading their words, are in quarantine, because everyone’s in quarantine. It’s like this big, international, universal experience that you’re not a part of.