Hijab Butch Blues

by Lamya H.

I gather my resentment, my fury that there’s nowhere in the world that’s magically free of racism and Islamophobia, homophobia and transphobia. I take that burning energy and channel it toward new, different questions: How can I fight injustices in this place where I have community, where I’m choosing to stay? How can I build a life here that feels, rooted in my principles, even if it will never be perfect?

What if my pseudonym is a whale that allows me to build and love and resist through activism and organizing, these new forms of fighting that have replaced the yelling and raging of my twenties? A whale that is protection, for the time being?

we communicate in whale song—with others, in their own whales, in their own communities, fighting battles of their own. We send sonar signals that vibrate through the waves, traversing oceans and crossing worlds. Decipherable only to those who become very quiet, wait, and listen.