“Being trans, I've grown up with the understanding that most women are ...” — Janet Mock Quote

Being trans, I've grown up with the understanding that most women are born girls, yet some are born boys. And most men are born boys, yet some are born girls. And if you're ready for this, some people are born girls or boys and choose to identify outside our society's binary system, making them genderqueer.

Femininity in general is seen as frivolous. People often say feminine people are doing 'the most,' meaning that to don a dress, heels, lipstick and big hair is artifice, fake, and a distraction. But I knew even as a teenager that my femininity was more than just adornments: they were extensions of me, enabling me to express myself and my identity.

I want - no, I need - to see images of black girls and femmes twerking, slaying and primping, just as much as I need to see Symone Sanders bopping her head and Representative Maxine Waters reclaiming her time.

My parents split before my fifth birthday, and I moved with Mom and my three siblings to her native Oahu.

I'm someone that likes to not think too binary about human qualities.

Binaries, whether it's 'man' or 'woman,' or 'black' and 'white,' were created to separate us. So without binary, there is only 'us,' which makes us all equal.

I think subsuming political and economic conflicts into some grand 'clash of civilisations' theory or 'the West versus the rest' binary is a particularly insidious form of ideological deception.

We've established a world that's binary gendered, and I don't want to be disadvantaged at all. If being male is going to be more advantageous than being female, I'm all about it. I don't really think it's that important.