passing

I always felt the reason I came out as genderqueer was so that I could finally feel like my body belonged to me — not some stranger.

But no, my body still belongs to society. My body still has to meet standards of people I don’t even know just so I can avoid being beaten or kicked out of the bathroom.

I enjoy the thought that I make other trans people, some of whom are in the closet or passing for cis, feel less alone when I take the train or talk with my normal voice.

I am a woman in a world meticulously manicured to only allow certain women to occupy womanhood.