Swiftdrawer's Thoughts

A Message Of Solidarity

To my fellow gender nonconforming people, I stand in solidarity with you. The world treats us as if we don't exist, like our identities are figments of our imagination but they are not figments of our imaginations. I should know, I am a fiction writer and longtime consumer of fictional media including countless anime, books, movies, and cartoons as well as a roller coaster enthusiast who has been to every single currently operating Disney and Universal theme park in the US as well as the likes of Knott's Berry Farm, Legoland Florida, and SeaWorld Orlando. But even if we were just imagining our identities, there would still be no reason for others to try to shame us for who we are. The imagination is an infinite force of immense power. The cultures of the world and internet would be nothing without it. Actually, we wouldn't even have modern technology without the imagination. Using your imagination and being gender nonconforming hurts no one and is nothing to be ashamed for.

If you identify as some kind of gender nonconforming identity, you are a valid and deserve support. People must use your preferred pronouns if they know or come to know them. It's a basic courtesy to do so. We exist and we are who we are. No one can tell us who we are better than ourselves because other people cannot read our every thought, past and present. It's hard to figure out gender identity if you don't identify with the gender you were raised as. If you are struggling with that, I believe in you. You will figure out who you are. It may not be anytime soon but that time will come as long as you don't give up and be honest to yourself. Non binary people and others who use they/them pronouns have now been used as a punchline for a pro you know who advertisement campaign that I had the displeasure of hearing a couple times on TV. And you know what? If they want to use us as punchlines so badly, there's nothing stopping us from using what they have used us for in order to clap back.

We are here and they can try to wipe us out but we will never disappear until the eventual extinction of humanity happens in the future at some point. As long as humanity exists, we will exist, just as trans boys, men, girls, and women always will. They tried to wipe us out in Europe in the late 30s to 1945 but they failed. We're now more visible than ever along with our trans siblings, part of the much broader family known as the LGBTQIA2S+ community. Gender nonconformity didn't just pop into existence in like 2014. We have always existed, it's only in recent times we realized that there are so many of us out there. Though in many indigenous communities, that's different because the colonizers enforced their false 2 gender binary upon them as part of their efforts to assimilate and hurt people.

The assertion that only 2 genders exist is an imperialist lie. Gender is a social construct, other animals don't have gender identities as far as we know. So what makes us so special by comparison? Besides, all of the labels and very words we used were made up to begin with in order to advance our needs as social creatures. There are an unlimited number of genders. Pizzagender exists out there but I don't know anyone who identifies as pizzagender. There's over 8 billion people on this planet, do people honestly believe they will all identify as the gender they were assigned at birth? That's utterly ridiculous, there's far too many of us for all of us to be cisgender even if we ignore the social origins of the concept of gender which is not a natural phenomenon we see in other creatures. Again, we aren't going anywhere, we deserve our identities to be respected. If someone tells you their pronouns, you use them or do not deserve their respect or for them to be completely nice to you.

Also, let's be clear about a few things. The idea that people are assigned a gender at birth is hilariously absurd when you think about it for long enough. Like, hello? People have to be assigned genders upon birth according to society? Is that even very useful? Excuse me, you're telling me that parents/doctors feel the need to assign newborns genders?! "Oh, this newborn has male genitals. Therefore, THIS NEWBORN IS A BOY!" The idea of gender assignment just feels really strange and silly now that I've learned all that I've learned. I get it makes life kinda easier for newborns when they grow into kids and so forth but wouldn't it be better to just- Okay, I just thought about again. Let's just toss the gender assignment thing out for the time being.