“I am to misbehave.”
I feel that this quote from “Firefly” feels the most appropriate right now. I refuse to behave. I refuse to lie back and take what a part of this country thinks I should as a woman, as a pan/bi/queer non-binary person. I can’t.
And I won’t.
I can’t as a member of humanity, trying to find their happiness in this world. A human who believes that other humans have an equal right to find their happiness, whatever that may look like. And to do it without the expense of other people. Happiness can be had without it being on the backs of others.
So, that’s why I have chosen to stand, to stand up for the things that I believe. To stand against hate and fear. I’m going to stand the only way that I know how, and in a manner, that so many of you are familiar. I’m going to write. I’m going to write about the things that I believe. I’m going to criticize things that I think could use change. I’m going to wear a big ol’ target because this is important. This is what America was founded on. It wasn’t founded on blind acceptance of what is. It’s fighting for how we can make things better.
I refuse to just fall in line. I refuse to be quiet.
I’m so grateful that I have people who will support me in my right to speak my mind, especially in a place where everyone wants to tell me to shut up and make a man a sandwich.
I will not let someone take away my bodily autonomy. I refuse to be barefoot and pregnant. I refuse to stop fancying who I fancy.
I will be me, unabashedly. I will be the queer person that I am. I will continue to pursue my happiness, and I will not take away from someone else’s for my own gain.
This is counter-intuitive to where this country wants to go. I don’t want to regress. I don’t think that things were better in the “good ol’ days”. I think that the best is yet to come. And I will fight for it to exist. I refuse to accept (like those who want to hold back what I consider progress) what is now the status quo. I have never been a fan of just accepting things the way they are.
And now, I feel, if you share my beliefs, that we all must fight to maintain every step forward we have taken. To not give in to fear and despair. To work to realize a better world for us all to live in. To fight against the alt-right and the white supremacists who want to limit the happiness that other humans should also be enjoying. America is not a white utopia. It should be a utopia for all.
So, I too shall raise my voice and say, “This is not OK. This is not acceptable. We are too good for this.” We will not be abused and told to take our place.
I will not be subject once again to the same abuse that I had to live for so many of my lives. I’m too much of a fighter for that.
“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”