My faggotry was born with me. It is an innate and steady part of my being, that will remain until I die. I came into this world fist raised against those who oppress me, for I was, and will remain to be unwilling to conform to the set of rules, roles and formalities that they have put in place for me to follow. I will always be a faggot. No matter what I do, who I fuck, or what name I call myself. I have accepted this branding, and learned to love who I am and the person I have become. Part of this acceptance is the refusal of all that is sacred to my oppressors. The systems they have created have no place for those of us who wish not to have our lives dictated by their laws. Therefore, I will knowingly, and vengefully resist those systems that I find to be unjust, and work to destroy them in exchange for a new way of living outside of the boundaries of the master’s yard. For too long, queers have lived in the shadows of a clean and plastic world. We’ve been forced to love in secret, had our bodies subjected to mutilation, had our existence threatened by authorities, and been murdered by a hateful society. Even still, we are under attack. Not only by those who wish to destroy us, but also by those who wish us to conform, who wish us to live more civil lives. These assimilationists ask us to surrender to a world that hates us, and beg us to live the kind of lives that the state expects us to. They ask us to obey our leaders, go to war, get married, and consume blindly. The assimilationists believe that if we all hush our mouths, that the privilege will trickle down, and we will no longer be subjected to violence. What they do not see is how the sentiment of assimilation is violence itself. Some of us will never be able to live without fear. As long as there is a hetero-sexist state there will always be those who are oppressed by it. Some of us may be able to acquire the freedoms of the rest of the “straight, cisgendered” society, but not all. Assimilation means compromise, and that is not, nor will ever be, part of my vocabulary. My queerness is resistance to the state, resistance to assimilation, an resistance to oppression in any form. I will continue to fight along side of those who are marginalized by society, and I refuse to take part in any group or action that suggests otherwise.

Forever Sickeningly yours, Autumn Springs Barksdale.