By Button Poetry
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A runner-up the 2019 Button Poetry video contest.
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:08
– I’m scrolling through Facebook
00:10
looking at a picture that my boyfriend shared.
00:13
It’s someone he knows.
00:15
One of his friends coming out
00:18
of a queer club in the States.
00:19
Bloody expression, glass shattered over his forehead,
00:23
spread out like glitter or confetti.
00:28
Someone is celebrating in this picture,
00:32
someone is celebrating the 45th president
00:34
behind this lens.
00:35
In this moment,
00:36
someone’s celebrated that president
00:38
by smashing a bottle of liquor over some queer.
00:41
(upbeat music)
00:43
At least the alcohol will sanitize the wounds.
00:49
My best friend tells me he’s considering suicide.
00:52
My parents still tell me we have nothing to be afraid of
00:55
I tell them we’re afraid of his supporters.
00:58
Their voice is vociferous
00:59
and ours is just victim card.
01:02
Ours is just victim after victim,
01:03
after victim, after victim, after victim,
01:05
after victim, after victim until I can’t speak.
01:10
There was blood
01:12
and glass in my mouth.
01:14
At least it’ll help me hold my tongue
01:17
if I don’t have anything nice to say.
01:19
Don’t say anything at all to homophobic abusers.
01:23
I can’t speak.
01:25
My fear is burning the glass back down to sand
01:28
until my words aren’t as sharp as they used to be.
01:31
I can’t speak because my parents keep telling me
01:33
I am safer with him
01:35
and that makes me speechless.
01:38
They say I am safer with him
01:41
because he held a rainbow flag at a rally once
01:45
and now that means our blood is being cleaned,
01:48
still banned from Canadian donation services.
01:51
But this is progress.
01:53
He opposes federal gay marriage,
01:55
but this is progress.
01:56
So I close my Facebook.
01:59
I’m tired of politics.
02:01
Let’s celebrate the makeshift Molotov toast,
02:05
sturdy fixture, and a line of rope.
02:07
This is progress.
02:09
This is progress.
02:10
We are hashtag winning.
02:12
This is hashtag progress.
02:14
(soft music)
02:19
I heard my aunt who lives in Texas ask,
02:24
“Why is everyone so scared?”
02:29
I wanted to answer,
02:32
but there were still shards in my teeth
02:35
and blood on my lips.
—
This post was previously published on YouTube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video