The Right To Exist

You say, of course
we have the right to exist.

 

With the wrong body,
wrong name,
wrong pronouns,
wrong clothes,
wrong ID,
wrong bathroom.

 

Growing up the rule was
be as Queer as you like in private
but act straight in public.
Or you’ll get arrested,
or beaten,
or killed.

 

Now you want us back in the closet,
leaving us with nothing more
than the half-life all Queers had
before Stonewall.
Before the Gender Queers 
stood up and said “No more!”

 

Do we have to put our lives down
 — again —  for the simple freedom
to stand in the sun without fear?