All Boys Aren't Blue

by George M. Johnson

However, a lot of this history has been erased from those who identify as queer, which has allowed the notion that queer culture comes from emulating Black cishet women to spread.

Meaning, had a girl created this term, it likely wouldn’t have caused as much of a fuss with anyone.

Language is interesting, especially as a child. Kids have been known to create their own words and languages that they can share amongst themselves—often looked at as harmless. Yet in this case, my invented language was seen as a threat to masculinity

found a new love in track and field. It was a sport that didn’t require a whole lot of masculinity, and running was something I actually enjoyed doing.

It wasn’t that I had a disdain for sports as much as I had a fear of interacting with people I wasn’t comfortable around.

You sometimes don’t know you exist until you realize someone like you existed before.

Symbolism gives folks hope. But I’ve come to learn that symbolism is a threat to actual change—it’s a chance for those in power to say, “Look how far you have come” rather than admitting, “Look how long we’ve stopped you from getting here.”

Saying that something was “a norm” of the past is a way not to have to deal with its ripple effects in the present. It removes the fact that hate doesn’t just stop because a law or the time changed.

It is not a final thing. It’s something that is ever occurring. You are always having to come out somewhere. Every new job. Every new city you live in. Every new person

Queer folks often live a second adolescence throughout much of their adult lives because of this deprivation.

I’m always talking about how this queer community has the chance to be the blueprint. We get to set the stage for the next generation that will come up behind us. We don’t have to be so easily accepting of the norms we were forced to follow.