A Half-Built Garden

by Ruthanna Emrys

“Then why are you so ready to bow to someone else’s prejudices? Isn’t it bad enough that human bigotry still shapes what we can do safely? These people aren’t our overlords, they haven’t conquered us—why should we twist ourselves to make them comfortable? They aren’t hiding the things that make us uncomfortable! If we want to be their equals, we have to act like it. Make them take us on our terms, and do our best to take them on theirs. That’s the only way it’s going to work, and that’s why I put out badges and made sure they saw all of us holding the kids, and didn’t apologize for it.”

It took me a bit to get into this book, but it was quotes like this that solidified why I enjoyed listening to it.