Horse Barbie Quotes

“That's the thing about trans joy: It can never be fully extinguished. People can try to narrow the possibilities for our lives, even end them, but our spirits will always expand to fill whatever space we are given. We will find the power in us.”
― Geena Rocero, Horse Barbie

“We can cling to our individualism all we want, but in truth we are all deeply connected to each other because on some level, we *are* each other.”
― Geena Rocero, Horse Barbie

“I didn't need to come out ot her. I never said those declarative words - and I didn't even know them at the time. Vocabulary like trans would come much later in my life. All I needed was to hear the pride in Mama's voice as she called me beautiful.

Sometimes the things that go unsaid are more powerful than anything that can be uttered aloud: emotions that pierce your soul, moments of connection that mean so much more than binary answers and direct responses.”
― Geena Rocero, Horse Barbie

“My kid, no matter what people say, there's nothing wrong with you. Just be a good person.”
― Geena Rocero, Horse Barbie: A Memoir of Reclamation

“Geena, you speak about transgender rights and FIlipino food with equal expertise.”
― Geena Rocero, Horse Barbie

“Despite the ubiquity of government-organized trans pageants in the Philippines, trans people themselves are not politically recognized. We are culturally visible but legally erased. To this day, trans Filipinas have M gender markers on their documents and cannot change their names in court. We don't have robust antidiscrimination protections. No amount of pageant glory can make up for the fact that our government still doesn't see and treat trans people as full citizens able to participate in society as we truly are.

In a country of over 100 million people, only a few dozen certified endocrinologists offer gender-affirming care. Growing up, I relied on other trans people to find hormones, figuring out the right dosages through hearsay, transitioning entirely without proper medical supervision. There was no other choice back then - and for many today, DIY is still the only option.

My community is littered with stories of injections gone horribly wrong. Even worse, when someone dies from an overdose or an unsupervised medical treatment, it's shrugged off as a sad fact of life. 'That's what happens,' the emergency techs will say, our lives stripped of value by the very institutions that ought to care for us. I will never forget when one of my Garcia clan sisters succumbed to death from a botched medical procedure, a victim of all the intersecting forces trans Filipinas have to navigate to get treatment.”
― Geena Rocero, Horse Barbie