---
date: 2015-10-14
type: post
title: Being Transgender
categories:
- Poem
tags:
- Gender
- Transition
---

<pre class="verse">
You get to explain gender to all of your friends &mdash;
    And all of your family &mdash;
    And maybe once more to be sure &mdash;
    And random strangers &mdash;
    And maybe, like, doctors and nurses who should probably know better;

You get to explain to your partner that nothing has changed &mdash;
    And that you were always this way &mdash;
    And that really, honestly, nothing has changed &mdash;
    And that this has no effect on your love for them &mdash;
    And I promise;

You will get to come out again &mdash;
    And explain that it wasn't that being gay wasn't enough &mdash;
    And explain that it has nothing to do with who you like &mdash;
    And explain that that shouldn't matter &mdash;
    And &mdash; oh right, this means you might be straight after all;

You get to go through that awkward period of growing your hair out &mdash;
    And learning how to ask for a more feminine haircut &mdash;
    And trying a curling iron for the first time &mdash;
    And figuring out how to eat noodles without also eating your hair &mdash;
    And the worries that you're just trying to be rebellious;

You get to worry whether you're maybe just trying to be rebellious &mdash;
    And whether or not you might just be faking it &mdash;
    And whether you're really Trans Enough or not &mdash;
    And whether you're maybe just appropriating femininity &mdash;
    And whether or not passing really matters to you anyway;

You get to dress up in your best clothes &mdash;
    And your best makeup &mdash;
    And worry that your shoes are too masculine &mdash;
    And have your hair game on point &mdash;
    And convince the doc that you deserve those patches and pills;

You get to go through puberty again &mdash;
    And it will be weirder this time around &mdash;
    And your skin will grow soft &mdash;
    And you'll get more sensitive to temperature changes &mdash;
    And &mdash; YEOWCH! That's a new sensation;

You will cry a lot &mdash;
    And bite your tongue often &mdash;
    And lower your gaze &mdash;
    And learn to take up less space &mdash;
    And talk softer;

And your dogs will still love you.
</pre>
