To start with, I'm a gender non conforming person. Now, I've been this way my whole life, the vocabulary just took some time to figure out. But now, as a 20-year-old, I am comfortable with this identity.

Here's the thing, I may be comfortable with this identity, but not everyone is. I am torn apart with comments about how there are "Only two genders!" or "They/Them pronouns aren't grammatically correct!" (More on all of these to come, I'm sure). It's a daily struggle of oppression.

As gender non conforming, I identify with the trans community, I can relate to parts of their struggles. I've met a lot of great people in this community and I'm proud to be a part of it. But as gender non conforming, I also feel like I don't belong in their safe spaces. I'm not "trans enough" to be there. I have yet to desire a transition to Male or Female, no desire to start HRT or get any kind of surgery. I pass well, so I don't have to worry about people kicking me out of bathrooms (Not that I use gendered bathrooms anyway, always unisex restrooms for me, but it's nice to know that it's there). I don't need to worry about so much that these beautiful people have to struggle with on the daily.

It's not just me though. I have a friend, who we'll call Charlie. Charlie is Hard of Hearing. He can still hear some, but he's legally deaf. Now Charlie is one of the reasons I want to learn ASL, so I can communicate with him in his language. He often worries that he'll be rejected from the Deaf community because he's not "Deaf enough". I have another friend who is mixed race but white passing. She worries that she's not "Black enough". There are infinitely more stories just like ours.

This has to stop.

We cannot be fighting over who is more oppressed or how much oppression is needed to be a part of a minority.

We are enough. We are a part of your world.