Sometimes I worry that I am too hard on us men. But then I watch another news story about a Trumpian power grab and the men that make it possible, or I watch footage of children being grabbed by masked ICE officers, and I can’t help but wonder what has gone so wrong that we can believe this is what it means to have purpose. I keep coming back to the collective witness of and threat to trans people during this crisis. What if their way of life points to our collective freedom?
I was talking last year with a trans woman I know, and I messed up her pronouns. “I’m so sorry!” I said. Her response has never really left me, and these days it feels even more significant.
She said, “You know, I feel like everyone has all the genders swirling around in them. I maybe feel them closer to the surface in my life. So however you see me, that is something that is true of me, and I want you to use pronouns that describe who you see. I am OK with that because what you see is a part of me.”
