I'm scared
Everything keeps falling apart
Foundations upon which I once stood
are crumbling down
and I can't stop it
but I can still keep smiling
They can take away my rights
They can beat me down
They can outlaw my people
They can take and take and take
But the one thing they can't take
is the smile on my face
I can find a reason to smile
Even when I'm crying
Even when I'm scared
I won't let them take my light away
My beautiful rainbow light
that I spread through my smile
My light has so much in it
pain and sorrow
love and joy
spite and kindness
everything that makes me me
and I can show it all through a smile
They will never take it away
No one will ever take it away
not my name
not my identity
not my light
not my smile
People who were born different
People who were raised differently
People who look and think differently
People like me
People like you
People like us
They try to beat us into place
Convince us that no one wants us
Erase us from the narrative
Hope that everyone forgets about us
Then leave us to deal with the trauma
All on our own
But we are not alone
We are not wrong
Every single person in this world is different in a million different ways
Who are they to say that their ways are right and ours are wrong?
We are different
We are unique
We cannot be silenced
We cannot be erased
I wrote I Am Me in 2022, right around a year before I came out as trans. Reading it now, it resonates so much with everything happening.
The original inspiration was the idea that people tried cramming me into a box labeled “Man” and I hated it. That wasn't me. I didn't want to be treated that way. Now that I'm out as trans, living life as a woman, I'm so much happier. I'm happy to be crammed into a box labeled “Woman,” even though that's still a close-minded way of thinking.
I'm gonna keep flying free, no matter what. Because I am me.
Thank you for reading. Remember, we are stronger together. And we'll get through this. Together.
I'm not a monster like they make me out to be
I'm just trying to be true to myself, to be the real me
I don't understand, I've got a medical condition
It's called “gender dysphoria”, but they won't listen
to my cries, to my tears, no they just don't care
all they wanna do is lie and cheat and scare
They don't understand and they don't want to
The way people are, why they do the things they do
They call me selfish and a liar, say I'm coming for your children
Then they try to ban proven science and call me a villain
Yeah, maybe I'm a little selfish once in a while
but it's okay to do things for me, things that make me smile
I'm not a monster like they make me out to be
I'm just trying to be true to myself, to be the real me
They call it “chemical and physical mutilation”, it makes me so mad!
Would they say the same thing to someone with cancer in their nads?
They insult the experts, call their work “junk science”
yet those people have proven time and again they've earned our reliance
Do they really think I came to this idea on a whim one day?
Do they have any inkling how hard it is to be this way?
I take pills every day, injections every week
And I've got millions of people shouting that I'm a freak
I didn't ask to be this way, this isn't a choice
I just want to love my body, my face, my voice
Gender-affirming care isn't wrong, it saves lives
Did you know the percent of people happier for it is greater than 89?
I have a voice to speak, a stage on which I stand
so I want you to know, I want you to understand
there's nothing wrong with this, it's okay to be this way
no matter what those people out there say
I'm not a monster like they make me out to be
I'm just trying to be true to myself, I just want to love me
I just want to be true to myself
I just want to love me
Mirror, Mirror, what do I see?
My own self-loathing reflected back at me
I've changed so much, and yet
all I do is look in you and fret
My face isn't the same at all
I'm even learning how to walk tall
but I can only see what I believe:
this self-doubt that never wants to leave
So I'll repeat day after day
the affirmations I've learned to say
in the hopes that I'll make it real
that it will become the way I feel
I'll cast away these feelings blue
the feelings, Mirror, Mirror, I can't hide from you