In the Making: “I wrote this after going to a protest in Jefferson City, where I held a protest sign above my head for 4 hours,” Goldwasser said. “Trans liberation now.”

Am I not a woman?

Waking up everyday despising my body 

as it does not conform?

Am I not a woman 

as I long for the days of different oppressors because at least they weren’t as open about wanting to control my body?

Am I not a woman 

hiding my righteous anger for fear of being thought of as too masculine?

Am i not a woman

missing school days where i should be feeling like i’m in a john hughes movie to go protest for my medical rights?

How dare you, how dare you call me a man while the only difference between me and you is what is between my legs when you yourself say that is not what a woman should be reduced to. I should have been a mother and I should have been a wife, but according to you I am not a woman.

The piles and piles of

black and 

brown and 

asian and 

native and

all the other ands who have been erased from our history books’ bodies line the street created by the corrupt and careless cops who patrol them

and you care that I want to be who I am?

There is a genocide right in your neighborhood.

My genocide.

The transgender genocide.

So am I not a woman while I wish I wasn’t the subject of discussion?

Am I not a woman?

Tell me!

I’d rather hear it

from the lips

of an ignorant neighbor

than the laws of a hateful leader.