1 00:00:01,788 --> 00:00:06,618 ...So are we as a self-proclaimed community going to try to be different than the rest of the world, 2 00:00:06,618 --> 00:00:07,546 do things differently, 3 00:00:07,546 --> 00:00:10,612 transform community through healing as opposed to punishing, 4 00:00:10,612 --> 00:00:12,516 by recognizing that people are more 5 00:00:12,516 --> 00:00:14,652 than their mistakes or fucked up choices? 6 00:00:14,652 --> 00:00:15,813 even if those choices 7 00:00:15,813 --> 00:00:17,438 hurt other people in our community? 8 00:00:17,438 --> 00:00:18,878 What is it that we value? 9 00:00:18,878 --> 00:00:20,596 What's important? 10 00:00:20,596 --> 00:00:21,618 What importance do we place 11 00:00:21,618 --> 00:00:24,961 on responsibility for ourselves and to each other? 12 00:00:24,961 --> 00:00:27,237 I think it's responsible to want to own the choices we make, 13 00:00:27,237 --> 00:00:29,977 and to be accountable for how our actions affect others, 14 00:00:29,977 --> 00:00:31,138 our community, 15 00:00:31,138 --> 00:00:33,971 and not run away from our choices when the shit hits the fan. 16 00:00:33,971 --> 00:00:35,550 I couldn't help noticing the reactions 17 00:00:35,550 --> 00:00:37,129 to the accusations of rape, 18 00:00:37,129 --> 00:00:38,615 the fleeing distancing from maleness, 19 00:00:38,615 --> 00:00:41,448 of my identity that was even remotely male, 20 00:00:41,448 --> 00:00:43,630 from being seen as a man. 21 00:00:43,630 --> 00:00:45,627 The repetition a reminder of female history, 22 00:00:45,627 --> 00:00:48,274 gender non-conforming to the chromosomal condition. 23 00:00:48,274 --> 00:00:49,575 I may look like a man, 24 00:00:49,575 --> 00:00:50,596 talk like a man, 25 00:00:50,596 --> 00:00:51,758 fight like a man, 26 00:00:51,758 --> 00:00:52,547 even smell like a man, 27 00:00:52,547 --> 00:00:54,311 definitely fuck like a man, 28 00:00:54,311 --> 00:00:57,284 but I'm not really a man, remember? 29 00:00:57,284 --> 00:00:58,955 I often think that's the reason so many people 30 00:00:58,955 --> 00:01:02,299 start out as grown women and all of a sudden become boys as opposed to men 31 00:01:02,299 --> 00:01:06,107 after hormonal and surgical intervention. 32 00:01:06,107 --> 00:01:08,754 _ after all, are not men. 33 00:01:08,754 --> 00:01:10,101 Therefore, not as threatening, 34 00:01:10,101 --> 00:01:12,765 and certainly cannot be expected to be as responsible. 35 00:01:12,765 --> 00:01:14,420 Either way, it seems that people want 36 00:01:14,420 --> 00:01:16,696 the romantic and sexual allure of men, 37 00:01:16,696 --> 00:01:18,274 but not the legacy of men. 38 00:01:18,274 --> 00:01:19,621 To have a boys life, 39 00:01:19,621 --> 00:01:22,453 without a mans responsibility. 40 00:01:27,284 --> 00:01:28,120 Playing dress-up, 41 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:29,420 playing man for the attention, 42 00:01:29,420 --> 00:01:31,092 that's what drag is. 43 00:01:31,092 --> 00:01:32,949 Even if the stage is a political one. 44 00:01:32,949 --> 00:01:34,018 It's still a stage, 45 00:01:34,018 --> 00:01:37,361 and if you can take it off when it doesn't suit the situation, it's still drag. 46 00:01:37,361 --> 00:01:37,861 And that's all good, 47 00:01:37,861 --> 00:01:39,265 I love drag. 48 00:01:39,265 --> 00:01:40,101 That's part of the umbrella too, 49 00:01:40,101 --> 00:01:43,120 but I think it's problematic to occupy male space in the world 50 00:01:43,120 --> 00:01:46,463 but refuse to recognize that that is indeed the space one occupies. 51 00:01:46,463 --> 00:01:50,898 And proceed to shirk the responsibility that comes with that. 52 00:01:52,036 --> 00:01:53,940 Just like folks of colour, 53 00:01:53,940 --> 00:01:58,213 like my kid, who may sometimes pass as white, even though they're not. 54 00:01:58,213 --> 00:01:59,792 Race may be an illusion, 55 00:01:59,792 --> 00:02:02,439 but it is a powerful one in a racialized world, 56 00:02:02,439 --> 00:02:05,000 as is gender in a gendered world. 57 00:02:06,100 --> 00:02:08,894 I don't bale on my manhood when it's inconvenient. 58 00:02:08,894 --> 00:02:12,656 I'm not ashamed to be, or apologetic about the fact that I am a man. 59 00:02:12,656 --> 00:02:14,327 It's whom I struggled, mostly with myself, 60 00:02:14,327 --> 00:02:15,273 to liberate. 61 00:02:15,396 --> 00:02:20,132 Although it is political, it's who I am, not what I do. 62 00:02:20,132 --> 00:02:21,804 It's not my political or social statement 63 00:02:21,804 --> 00:02:22,811 since I moved here, 64 00:02:22,811 --> 00:02:24,793 until I graduate from college. 65 00:02:24,793 --> 00:02:31,139 I am, or strive to be, the honourable and responsible man I was meant to be. 66 00:02:31,139 --> 00:02:34,297 My inherited complex legacy included. 67 00:02:34,297 --> 00:02:36,333 I owe it to those people who pay with their dignity every day, 68 00:02:36,333 --> 00:02:38,941 and those who've paid with their lives to be who they were, 69 00:02:38,941 --> 00:02:40,729 to stand firmly in the shoes I've stepped into, 70 00:02:40,729 --> 00:02:42,447 for better and for worse. 71 00:02:42,447 --> 00:02:43,460 I feel like I have a responsibility to them, 72 00:02:43,491 --> 00:02:45,945 whether they know it or not.