I've Been Thinking A Lot About Queerness Lately And I Keep Getting Stuck On How Deeply I Want It To Be

I've been thinking a lot about queerness lately and I keep getting stuck on how deeply I want it to be normal. I want little girls to come home excitedly telling their parents about a pretty new girl in school that they have a crush on. I want young boys to have their first kiss with another boy and be able to tell their friends about it. I want them to be impressed and slap him on the back and say congrats. I want to bring home a woman to my family and have my father give her that whole fake threatening, "you better be good to my daughter" speech before offering her a handshake and a beer. I want people everywhere in the world to be able to hold hands in the street and not even think twice about it, not have to feel afraid, not have to feel like they're making a statement. I want so desperately for the world to catch up with something that so many of us already understand as normal. I don't want to be merely tolerated, and I wish pride wasn't necessary. I wish that having confidence in myself wasn't a revolutionary act.