Just a Child

Dateline: January 25, 2026

“I am just a child. Lost. Unsure about most things, especially now, as I look at myself in the mirror. Unable yet to see who I am underneath all of these pronouncements about my gender, my behavior, my sadness, my happiness, my questions. I know I am not whole yet. I feel I am ready to be complete but I keep being told I am not who I know I am. In my heart. In my soul. In my body.

My beautiful and loving parents have accepted these questions of mine. They have not shamed me for my mirror gazing. They have not been shocked as they find me playing in mama’s closet, playing at her make up table. Searching for the other parts of myself. The hidden parts that would be bullied, have been bullied. Pushed down in the dark hallways at school. Threatened because of my loving nature. My weak voice when confronted with violence. The ugly words. The shameful words. And no one there to protect me. I am just the laughing stock. The butt of the joke.

But I am not a joke. I am the mirror of you, and you cannot see that. You do not recognize yourself in me. The weak part. The feminine part. The unsure part. And, yes, the proud part. The one who can take a beating and not go crying off to tattle tale at mama’s breast.

I walk out of your darkened hallway torture chambers with my head bowed (held high) and I wait patiently for the world to catch up with me.

At this point in time, it is going to take quite a while. The powers that be have emerged from those hidden dark underpinnings and are now in charge (perhaps they always have been). They take away my medication. They forbid doctors to talk to me about my questions. To help me on my journey to find what’s hidden in my secret mirror. For they have been beaten up too. The doctors. They have lost their head held high. The bullies are winning - for now.

But not for long.

We girly boys, we he men, we humans, will defeat them in the end and make them crawl back under the rock they came from. Hopefully in prison for what they have done to our country, our people, our weak ones.

This hopelessness cannot last. It must not last.

Yes, I am just a child now.

But not for long.

I am learning. I am growing. I am changing...for the good, for the better.

For the ones like me.”