We want to take a moment to acknowledge and thank Ezra for sharing this powerful and deeply honest piece, “You’re so brave.”
Thank you for trusting us with your story, for naming these experiences so clearly, and for creating space for reflection, learning, and solidarity. Your voice matters, and it helps others feel seen.
We stand with you - not just in celebrating visibility, but in recognising the ongoing work needed to create a world where simply existing doesn’t require bravery. 💛
---------------------------------------------------------
“You’re so brave”
What does that even mean? Ever since I came out ten years ago it’s a phrase that seems to follow me.
Each time it is stated in relation to my queerness, I become slightly less confused, but also slightly more frustrated at society and the boxes we get assigned as humans.
I am brave because of the way the trans community is treated as a whole in a predominantly cis society.
I am brave because of the countless trans children, teenagers, and adults who are pushed to the point of suicide because they are bullied for being “abnormal”, “disgusting”, “wrong”.
I am brave because of the trans people sent to mental health facilities for conversion therapy.
I am brave because of the trans women, especially trans women of colour, who are murdered– predominantly the USA, but also worldwide.
I am brave because of the way the LGB community attempts to erase members of the trans community from social events, as though it wasn’t a trans woman that threw the first brick.
I am brave because of the way the transgender community attempts to erase those whose identities fall under the nonbinary umbrella like myself, claiming that we are not “trans enough” and that our identities are invalid.
Truthfully, I am exhausted from being ‘brave’. I don’t want to worry about what I wear each time I leave the house and whether it would result in negative or violent interactions from strangers.
It’s Transgender Day of Visibility and I desperately wish to be joyous, but it honestly is hard to do when the world is the way it is right now. I want to celebrate my queerness, be upbeat, do cute makeup, give some positive words of wisdom, but at this moment I cannot. Being trans takes a toll on my mental health, not because I’m trans, but because of the way society treats us.
It shouldn’t be this hard to exist.