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  • 11 years ago
Alok Vaid-Menon's Love Letter
Poet Alok writes a letter to their younger self about the struggles and beauty growing up trans.

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Transcript
00:02Dear Alok, don't worry, you still listen to the same songs when you get dressed in the morning.
00:08And I say dress because you are wearing dresses now and confidence too, which is weird because
00:14you spent half of your life trying to erase yourself and almost succeeded. Remember that
00:19night you screamed to the stars because you needed someone to talk to about the budding flower in your
00:24throat. I want you to remember that feeling but forget the word. Who you are is far too complicated,
00:31far too exquisite, and far too lovely to ever be contained by language, let alone English. I wish
00:38I could tell you that everything is going to be okay, but it won't. You and I both know that
00:43some
00:44part of us died when a doctor told mom we were a boy, but what I can tell you is
00:48that the first
00:49sight of resistance was your body, and you have been resisting ever since. And there is something
00:54beautiful and defiant about that. Love, Alok.
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