genderqueer

submission from U. N. Owen:

Well, this was me, before I finally cut my hair. I don’t believe I’ve ever shown this picture to anyone, but I’ve gotten tired of feeling ashamed of her.

I recently began introducing myself as Adrian, instead of Anna, and not to just my friends, but anyone. I’ve been asked why I’ve kept my original initials, and people have even accused me of “not really being a boy” because I kept them. It made me really think about why I decided to leave them as they are, and I realized that it wasn’t to give me comfort, or to hold on to her, or anything like that, but it was for my parents. I never thought about how much power there is in a name. I mean, it seems that naming something is almost like claiming it. It gives the person doing the naming a sort of power, if not an ownership, and re-naming myself took that power away from my parents, and leaving that bit of the name they gave me was my way of trying to give them a little of their power back.

Well, now I’ve ranted. Sorry if that made no sense, or bored someone to tears. Good luck to all.