I had a really good conversation with my father about my queerness, my identity, and my existence. He’s come a long way and I’m very proud of him.

My father is the most hypermasculine and toxic masculine, heteronormative Caribbean man you could ever imagine. So for him to realize that obviously it’s not about him, and that he doesn’t have valid reason to be apprehensive about who his child is, is very important.

For background, he was telling me of a gay boy that was unfortunately beaten to death back in the old country—it hiy really close to home tor him. I explained how that is reality for a lot of us. I live my truth everyday and I’m willing to die for it. Unfortunately some of us do.

Queerness isn’t something that anyone chooses or wishes for, but you know damned well that we actively work very hard to find ourselves in this world, and to love ourselves for principle because we deserve to. We’ve been fighting forever, but we can’t hang up our gloves just yet.