0:00:01.788,0:00:06.618 ...So are we as a self-proclaimed community going to try to be different than the rest of the world, 0:00:06.618,0:00:07.546 do things differently, 0:00:07.546,0:00:10.612 transform community through healing as opposed to punishing, 0:00:10.612,0:00:12.516 by recognizing that people are more 0:00:12.516,0:00:14.652 than their mistakes or fucked up choices? 0:00:14.652,0:00:15.813 even if those choices 0:00:15.813,0:00:17.438 hurt other people in our community? 0:00:17.438,0:00:18.878 What is it that we value? 0:00:18.878,0:00:20.596 What's important? 0:00:20.596,0:00:21.618 What importance do we place 0:00:21.618,0:00:24.961 on responsibility for ourselves and to each other? 0:00:24.961,0:00:27.237 I think it's responsible to want to own the choices we make, 0:00:27.237,0:00:29.977 and to be accountable for how our actions affect others, 0:00:29.977,0:00:31.138 our community, 0:00:31.138,0:00:33.971 and not run away from our choices when the shit hits the fan. 0:00:33.971,0:00:35.550 I couldn't help noticing the reactions 0:00:35.550,0:00:37.129 to the accusations of rape, 0:00:37.129,0:00:38.615 the fleeing distancing from maleness, 0:00:38.615,0:00:41.448 of my identity that was even remotely male, 0:00:41.448,0:00:43.630 from being seen as a man. 0:00:43.630,0:00:45.627 The repetition a reminder of female history, 0:00:45.627,0:00:48.274 gender non-conforming to the chromosomal condition. 0:00:48.274,0:00:49.575 I may look like a man, 0:00:49.575,0:00:50.596 talk like a man, 0:00:50.596,0:00:51.758 fight like a man, 0:00:51.758,0:00:52.547 even smell like a man, 0:00:52.547,0:00:54.311 definitely fuck like a man, 0:00:54.311,0:00:57.284 but I'm not really a man, remember? 0:00:57.284,0:00:58.955 I often think that's the reason so many people 0:00:58.955,0:01:02.299 start out as grown women and all of a sudden become boys as opposed to men 0:01:02.299,0:01:06.107 after hormonal and surgical intervention. 0:01:06.107,0:01:08.754 _ after all, are not men. 0:01:08.754,0:01:10.101 Therefore, not as threatening, 0:01:10.101,0:01:12.765 and certainly cannot be expected to be as responsible. 0:01:12.765,0:01:14.420 Either way, it seems that people want 0:01:14.420,0:01:16.696 the romantic and sexual allure of men, 0:01:16.696,0:01:18.274 but not the legacy of men. 0:01:18.274,0:01:19.621 To have a boys life, 0:01:19.621,0:01:22.453 without a mans responsibility. 0:01:27.284,0:01:28.120 Playing dress-up, 0:01:28.120,0:01:29.420 playing man for the attention, 0:01:29.420,0:01:31.092 that's what drag is. 0:01:31.092,0:01:32.949 Even if the stage is a political one. 0:01:32.949,0:01:34.018 It's still a stage, 0:01:34.018,0:01:37.361 and if you can take it off when it doesn't suit the situation, it's still drag. 0:01:37.361,0:01:37.861 And that's all good, 0:01:37.861,0:01:39.265 I love drag. 0:01:39.265,0:01:40.101 That's part of the umbrella too, 0:01:40.101,0:01:43.120 but I think it's problematic to occupy male space in the world 0:01:43.120,0:01:46.463 but refuse to recognize that that is indeed the space one occupies. 0:01:46.463,0:01:50.898 And proceed to shirk the responsibility that comes with that. 0:01:52.036,0:01:53.940 Just like folks of colour, 0:01:53.940,0:01:58.213 like my kid, who may sometimes pass as white, even though they're not. 0:01:58.213,0:01:59.792 Race may be an illusion, 0:01:59.792,0:02:02.439 but it is a powerful one in a racialized world, 0:02:02.439,0:02:05.000 as is gender in a gendered world. 0:02:06.100,0:02:08.894 I don't bale on my manhood when it's inconvenient. 0:02:08.894,0:02:12.656 I'm not ashamed to be, or apologetic about the fact that I am a man. 0:02:12.656,0:02:14.327 It's whom I struggled, mostly with myself, 0:02:14.327,0:02:15.273 to liberate. 0:02:15.396,0:02:20.132 Although it is political, it's who I am, not what I do. 0:02:20.132,0:02:21.804 It's not my political or social statement 0:02:21.804,0:02:22.811 since I moved here, 0:02:22.811,0:02:24.793 until I graduate from college. 0:02:24.793,0:02:31.139 I am, or strive to be, the honourable and responsible man I was meant to be. 0:02:31.139,0:02:34.297 My inherited complex legacy included. 0:02:34.297,0:02:36.333 I owe it to those people who pay with their dignity every day, 0:02:36.333,0:02:38.941 and those who've paid with their lives to be who they were, 0:02:38.941,0:02:40.729 to stand firmly in the shoes I've stepped into, 0:02:40.729,0:02:42.447 for better and for worse. 0:02:42.447,0:02:43.460 I feel like I have a responsibility to them, 0:02:43.491,0:02:45.945 whether they know it or not.