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I don't know how come I have to lift the mic; she's like six inches taller than me.
There we go.
I am so glad to be at Trans Pride.
[applause]
Yes, thank you. I'm so glad to be at Trans Pride.
There's a really smart writer and trans woman named Julia Serano
who talks about how there are only two dominant narratives of trans people:
the pathetic *** and the deceptive ***.
Yeah, I don't see it.
Isn't that nice?
It feels so good to be with people who are with me and with everybody
I'm feeling a little choked up. I've been thinking about this a lot
and I am so glad to have so many opportunities this weekend
and here in Toronto to not only talk about
when things are *** up and when *** is hard and how we are going to fix it
but also to be together with people who are full of pride
who are full of how great we are
and who are full of how great we are not in spite of the fact that we are trans
or genderqueer or gender non-conforming or gender adjacent
or whatever new term has been invented since I got up to the microphone
and I count on that. I love that, because you know what that means?
It means that trans people have the first opportunity to name ourselves and insist on our own names
it means we don't have to take on medical legacy words
It means we don't have to take on other kinds of hate
It means that I can say, in truth, my gender is xylophone, and you will *** refer to me that way
and I can be listened to and respected in that.
And every time a fight about language breaks out
do we put a space between trans and woman
do we say this or that, I just think
thank G-d we have gotten to the point
where we can now stand up and insist on being called what we want
and expect that other people will respect it.
[applause]
Should you happen to not yet be feeling that?
Hang around some of these folks. They will help you learn.
Cause here in the audience are some of the fiercest activists I have known in my whole life
Some of the most talented artists, some of the nicest outfits. Good G-d, you people are good looking.
That's another thing I actually really love about being trans
I go around and I give talks, and things like that
and I look out at my audience
I always have the cutest *** audience of the whole day.
But I'm so glad to be able to talk about not only that we're cool in spite of being *** and trans
but that we are great because we are trans
and genderqueer and gender non-conforming
and gender fabulous in our various and extremely glittery ways. Right?
[applause]
[A bully] says, who do you think you are?
Well, we know who we think we are, don't we?
What do we spend all our time talking and thinking about but who we think we are?
What kind of stupid bully says who do you think you are to trans people?
Who knows better than us who we think we are?
Who but us has spent just an enormous amount of time, personally
Audience member: It's who we know we are!
What's that? It's who we know we are.
And we've thought about it, and we've been careful about it
and we've been thoughtful about it
and when we have failed to be thoughtful about it
someone else has said, 'You weren't thoughtful about it'
and then we get better about being thoughtful about it in the future.
And I actually could go on at length about other things about being *** and trans and genderqueer
but I know that I'm short on time.
However, I am hosting the gender revolution stage later.
I would just like you all to know, in case you did not already
and I know that this is not going to be new news for some of you
but for the rest of you
it's harder than I thought to get a tutu in a suitcase.
[laughter]
So, we'll talk more later - you knew that already? - we'll talk more later about all of the reasons that it's great to be us
but for now let me just say
Happy Pride.