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Resources -
GLBT Week 2006
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 When I Look in the Mirror
Who am I when I look in the mirror?…
I am a reflection of what you call me… Queer, Mister, Tom-boy, Dyke, Butch…
I am confused about how I feel inside…I am ashamed…I feel guilty because I do not fit a stereotypical gender identity…you need to label me male or female…and that makes me feel uncomfortable…that makes me feel constricted to the expression of the male and female side of me…you call me pretty and it makes me cringe, because what I need you to embrace is the handsome…do you ask what I prefer or do you make assumptions because of my gender birth and society’s stereotypical implications for gender…I encourage you to know “Mil”…neither man nor woman, but the creation of God…if you need to label me then I am gender-queer…if it makes you uncomfortable then I invite you to walk with me for a day in my spirit and share my experience of inner conflict of not fitting into a “standard” gender role…will you walk with me and be a little uncomfortable to help ease my uncomfortableness?…and please refrain from making me check the male or female box on your applications…your surveys…support me in claiming who I am by refraining from calling me Mister or Miss… I am an individual who just wants to live in a world where I am more than welcomed, but a world in which I am affirmed…
If I am defined in these ways, I am limited and confined to your own perceptions…this limits the expression of all of me…
But with God, I can see my reflection clearer and no longer am I a distorted image…I am wonderfully and beautifully made…
Most importantly I am proud because I am Queer…there is none other like me because I am different than you and that is okay… I am gender-queer and God knows it…
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