How to be Queer?

The answer is simple: Be you. In a world so focused on conformity, On fitting the mold, putting us in boxes, To be queer is to break the mold, Destroy the box, Toss them both in the trash and show the world The mess of who you are. Queerness cannot be separated. It is both part and the whole, No defined edges, No untangling from the Gordian knot of “Who is me?” Labels can help. Demisexual, demiromantic, Bi and sapphic Are a few of mine, but they are joined By other labels and identities: Autistic Disabled Traumatized Creative Joyful And so many more. These are all strands of the knot, Untangleable, Unbreakable, Unremovable from the whole. All these are queer, But queer is so much more. To be queer is to laugh, To dance despite the cruelty of a world that doesn’t want you in it. To be bold, resilient, Fierce in the face of your own oppression. To be queer is to fight for your right to be, To live, To love, Without expectation, Without restriction, Without anyone telling you how you should. To be queer is to live and to love With everything you have And everything you are, Without apology.