It's difficult to explain to those who weren't here, but the difference between how this country and this world responded to Covid, an indiscriminate killer and aids, which in early days exclusively killed gay men, makes one thing very clear: they were willing to let us die. We were a punchline, we brought this on ourselves, god was punishing us, simply because we had to audacity to be ourselves, to love each other. Those quiet boys, dancing in the corner, suddenly falling, everywhere you looked.

When I was 5 they asked me if I was a girl. When I was 8 they started calling me gay. When I was ten I heard the f-slur for the first time. When I was 12 the gym teacher told me to stop running "like that". When I was in high school the administration told me if I wanted the bashing from the other kids to stop I should stop acting "that way". When I was 19 the first manager I met with suggested I take voice lessons so I wouldn't sound "...you know".