This poem, featured at Capturing Fire, the national queer poetry slam, was written by Kit Yan.

all right so gender should be as simple as gay or straight

cuz if you are attracted to the opposite gender

you’re straight

if you are attracted to the same gender

well i guess you’re gay

therefore if you have a penis you’re a man

and if you have a vagina you’re a woman

straight shot

straight answer

gender

see gender is man next to woman

not touching but separate

gender is america’s controlled nationalism bullshit

gender is birth certificates for babies born into gender

housing applications check boxes and even getting an email address

this is gender

but i ask you

is it truly worth

embarrassment

imprisonment

or harassment

for your gender identity?

so excuse me are you a man or are you a woman

and you’ve changed your name to Kit now

so do you wanna be straight?

and you look like a boy now so you’re straight, right?

but back when you were Laura you were gay

as if sexuality and gender were something that you could purchase on impulse

pulling up to the register and carefully picking out

gay straight

man or woman

neatly packaged for easy consumption

then you should be able to do it with ease

purchasing a gold foiled bar of gay and plastic bag of man

and walking out of that grocery store fabulously onto the set of Queer Eye

but it’s not that easy

because sometimes my gender is

boy who looks like a girl who likes boys

and sometimes my gender is trans

and sometimes my gender is chilling out in between

but most of the time my gender is fuck you mind your own business

but it can’t be that way

because gender is so rigidly defined

neatly outlined and nicely colonized

organized and clearly understandable

yet the gap is becoming gendered and

i’m standing in line for the bathroom with

girls birls boys bis transsexual transgendered queer questioning curious polyamorous intersexed flexual asexual trisexual omnisexual multisexual pansexual gender neutral genderqueer multigendered androgynous drag king drag queen butch femme fairy two-spirit bear dyke lipstick tranny boi (with an i) ftm mtf boydyke bi-dyke half-dyke queerboi ex-straight and that’s just the beginning

but ask a member of the Zuni tribe about the lhamana’s gender

and they’ll tell you it’s lhamana

the South Asians about the hijaras

and they’ll tell you that it’s hijaras

the Hawaiians about mahus

and they’ll tell you that it’s mahu

the Americans about the trannies

and they’ll tell you that they don’t know

see there may be as many as a million genders identities and sexualities

just floating around waiting for the right person to snatch them up

put them on and proudly parade around in their new skin

unrestricted by layers and identity

or limitations of culture society or social construction

this new gender is a function of inner desire and

genuine understanding of self to be lived

so go ahead

and show us where the bathroom is