As performed at Existence is Resistance webinar hosted by AWID, IPPF, GATE, TYI Uganda and ITF.

they say,
“why you always gotta make it so political”
like my pronouns are a protest,
like my presence is a problem,
you tolerate, but never truly welcome.

but i’m not here to make you comfortable,
or shrink and shape myself into something more palatable,
for you.
my trans life transcends in importance your cis comfort
let that sink in,

my trans life transcends in importance your cis comfort
let that ring.
let that sting.
if this truth burns, then maybe you were never ready for these words.

if my mere existence is resistance,
then why the consistent hate
and the persistent ways
that you try to erase
every inch of me
while your ignorance can keep you distant
from the realities of our subsistence?

i’m not special.
i am simply a human that is watching the atrocities of a world that pretends it doesn’t see,
the cries,
and the silence under rubbles,
genocides live-streamed but labelled as “complicated”.
you are accustomed now to scrolling past,
as if grief is yet another headline.

where do we go from here?
we are threatened to be erased with laws,
with violence,
with god.
and with every step marched, and every word screamed,
the defense you claim is revealed as murder.
and yet, as we mourn,
we dare to hold joy,
and we dare to be visible.

and despite every cell in our bodies guilt tripping us to continue,
we dare to rest.

the ones who marched before us remind us in hushed whispers,
to refuse to burn out just to prove you’re still burning.

so let me be clear,
rest is not a retreat and neither it is for the weak,
it is reclamation.

rest, comrades,
and let them choke on their own urgency,
while you,
nap,
breathe,
heal.
use your joy as a weapon,
and your peace as a protest.
and watch them shift in discomfort,
as they feel a fraction of the pain you’ve swallowed to survive,
and call it resistance.