queer liberation

June 28, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

Pride

not a sin
not a parade
not an opportunity to buy rainbow things
not just a march
not just a month
not just a gathering of community much needed
but
a vibe shift
another word for joy
a holding society through a season of change
a riot
a protest
a holding society’s feet to the fire when it comes to what is deemed
acceptable
and what is not
a lifeline
a party
but only if all are included together
a personal curiosity
a way to show support and empathy
a reconfiguring of societal acceptance
no longer as what is wanted
but as our society
holding the power
and saying to the “majority”
you cannot cannot cannot make decisions
for the most downtrodden —
it is morally reprehensible when the most alone of us
are not
lifted
up

Pride is a way to lift each other up

and if that is not what is happening
i want no part in it

[if you are in the nyc area, go march in the
Queer Liberation March
today]

March 31, 2026

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i am visibly queer
i am visibly queer
sometimes i wish i was more
visibly trans
but other folks have their ideas
of what nonbinary-ness “should” look like
and, while androgyny is fun for some occasions
and wardrobe vestments
i think it leaves something to be desired
[i.e. imagination]
to have the only way to be
not taken in by either gender
is to cultivate a look that is “in between”
[but more often masculine, because that’s the
“default” in a patriarchal society, and i’m not playing out my gender
to play into society, i’m outing myself as a way to
get my way
the fuck
out
of
society]

[but i digress]

i am visibly queer
to allow other trans and queer folks
to see me
and know they’re
not alone

i’m visibly queer
because it makes me feel
the most at home
in my own skin
and my own identity

i’m visibly queer
also as a form of
solidarity
to those friends around me
who cannot turn off
or cover up
the melanin in their skin
or the angle of their eyes
or the accent with which they speak
or even my fellow trans folks who could not sit silently
in uncomfortable skin, so then
spent years making their own gender expression
just for some ass to say they don’t “pass” the way
that one person expects them to…

i cannot sit by while my compatriots in this fight against hate
have no ability to run away from or hide or go stealth inside
the exact parts of themselves that others
would attack them for

so why should i hide my own
queerness?

i need to stand tall
in my weird fashion and buzzed sides and rainbow hair
and loud loud queerness echoing from inside
this is me and i represent me
and i represent all who can’t or don’t feel safe being as visibly themselves
as i can be

and i can be

so i am

i am visibly queer
because i can be

i am visibly queer
because i am

and that is all that matters.

the end.

October 11, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

National
Coming
Out Day

a thing i did
so long long
long ago, and
still do to this
day

because, to be
in a heteronormative
cis-hierarchical society
means, if you don’t
conform fully, you
must explain yourself
constantly
constantly
constantly

May 13, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

nine years
married

a married-a-versary

[in this world we’re living in]

but
queer joy is resistance
and showing resilience
and we can do it
while also
using our privilege to help others
in our
community

March 31, 2025

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Trans Day of
Visibility
Trans Day of
Being
Trans Day
of Moving
of Growing
of Expanding
of Transcending
all expectations
and irrational rules
that the rulers of our society
deem
“right” only by way of
following
and not questioning
and having our heads down
as lambs in line for slaughter

but our Black Sheep
our Trans Sheep
our Questioning
Querying
Queers
who force others to ask
“Why”
of those usurpers of power
when only faced with the fact of our Existence

and though that scares some into
violence,
Trans Day of
Power
reminds us that
Simply our State of Being is enough
to topple regimes that seem to have been around for ages
[but hundreds of years is nothing
in the grand scheme of our
Existence]

Trans Day of
Millennia
upon Millennia
of our History

Trans Day of
The People

Trans Day of
Reminding Ourselves that when we feel
attacked
and disempowered
and scared
we have All of our
Ancestors
behind us

Trans Day of
Visibility

today might be
a terrifying day
[especially in the u.s. of a.]
to be Visible
to be Trans
when we are the scapegoat
of all that seems to be
the system
breaking

but Trans Day of
Enlightenment
Trans Day
of Knowing
that every
Trans Day
of
Visibility
only makes our Magic
More Apparent

We Are
Sacred

and We Have Always Fought For
Everyone’s
Liberation

January 21, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

just write through
the pain and
the loss and
the lost feelings and
the sleepiness and
the exhaustion and
the boredom and
the mundanity and
the distractions and
the battles and
the fight and
when the fight leaves us
for an hour or a day or a year
or so
we can write ourselves
back into the fight
if it means enough to us

[and yes, it means enough
to me]

June 26, 2023

/ HJ / Leave a comment

abandoned the Queer Liberation March
for our family
(but i think that’s what queer liberation means —
the choice to care for those around you,
for your family to be accepted and seen/
the queer love and joy (and pain and sorrow)
seen/ as equivalently normal
to straights
and cis’s)

so

while we no longer have the perfect track record
of only going to the Queer Liberation March
since moving to new york,
at least we retain our record
of never attending nyc corporate pride
(and that almost feels more apt
in this capitalistic grind consumerist colonizer society
of ours)

June 1, 2022

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the last few Junes
i’ve been filled more
with Gay Wrath
than Gay Pride;
seeing into the system
that kills our
Black and Brown comrades
and lulls us white queers
into a false sense of security,
complicity
with a system that wants our cash
but never wants our voices
or change for our liberation,
viewing the systems:
the patriarchy,
the white supremacy,
the capitalistic [lack of] integrity,
and learning that
though i’m part of the system
i can do very, very little about it
individually.

this morning
June 1
the first day of pride
in the crazy year of
2022
i simply feel
tired

perhaps this is my
Gay Sloth month?

no, that doesn’t sound right.

Sloth implies a desired laziness
naps for pleasure
on-purpose leisure
(though i did read
somewhere
once
that sloth might have meant
not laziness
but depression–
the dread that goes into that
catatonic inability to get up in the morning–
that is the sloth i am all too familiar with…)
so perhaps this year
is the year
of Gay Sloth
of Gay Existential Crisis
Gay Over-It-All

i am still out and proud
and will give everything to help
others
feel that way too;
my rainbow hair can be your beacon
if you need one,
but rainbow capitalism has stopped
luring me
has stopped
infuriating me
and i guess i’m at the point where
my only reaction
is a big roll of my eyes
and a reminder
to actually research
Why
the first Pride was a Riot
Why
there should be no pigs at Pride
Why
marriage equality isn’t what we thought
(i’ll give you a hint:
it starts with disability rights
and ends at capitalism)
and Why
Why
Why
we do still need Pride

i know
why
we still need Pride.

March 31, 2022

/ HJ / 1 Comment

Trans Day of Visibility.

i try to be so visible…

but my visibility often seems to negate my living experiences

(any time i wear the trans colors
i’m read as
only femme)

(and while i feel
not
the gender i was assigned at birth,
my taste often finds itself
aligning
with what my assigned gender
is ‘supposed to’ like)

(but i’m not just gay
as in happy
[though often i have this
demeanor]
i’m also queer
as in fuck the system,
as in i will always stand up for those with less power,
as in my entire identity will always be a political statement
because much of it is often politicized without my consent,
and i know of others with intersecting identities
on top of the identity[ies] we share
who will never be out of the line of fire from politicians
trying to gain power
over others)

so i’ll stand up
tall
(as my barely over five-foot-frame will let me)
and proud
of my trans identity,
my non-binary identity,
my queer-in-all-the-ways identity,
and tell everyone who will listen
‘yes, thank you for listening
to me,
an actual trans person,
but please
also listen
to those who fall under the binary umbrella
underneath the larger trans umbrella,
especially trans women,
and listen to those who fall under other marginalized identities,
listen to Black trans folks,
listen to Indigenous trans folks [Indigenous two-spirit people],
listen to trans people of color
listen to those folks of color with darker skin,
listen to trans people with disabilities
listen to trans people who aren’t neurotypical
listen to trans people who aren’t from your country,
listen to trans people who don’t look anything like you,
listen to trans folks who make you feel uncomfortable with your privilege
listen to trans folks who fight the system that was built to tear them down.

and honestly,
if you listen to those folks first
(which i encourage you to do)
and you have a lot of introspection to do
and you don’t have the time
or energy
or capacity
to listen to my words
afterwards,

i’d much prefer that.

listen to trans folks with less privilege than myself
expand your knowledge
first.

(maybe we’ll see each other in the metaphorical
‘audience’
and wave ‘hi!’)