I AM- YOU ARE: Gender, race, sexual orientation… they are beautiful

Our stories are unique, yet we are more alike than different

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

I am the girl everyone looks through and misses the pain in my eyes while they focus on the body they are disgusted by.

I am the boy that doesn’t like sports, but is expected to play anyway.

I am the woman no one loves, but longs for companionship.

I am the boy who feels like a stranger in his own body.

I am the teenage girl who knows inside she has always been a boy.

I am they: neither man or woman, and I want someone to hold me and love me, to see me all the way and not what my outside parts show.

I am the robust male who portrays an all American guy, afraid to hold hands with my husband in public.

I am the female lover of my married partner and his wife, terrified to show any public affection with either partners for fear of social ostracization and judgment.

I am the infertile woman who longs for a baby and avoids the people who tell me I should just adopt.

I am the adopted father of my lover’s child, and no one accepts me as their own.