By Miss Bouvèé

September brings another birthday for yours truly! Yes, on September 21st I will celebrate another year around the sun. There are so many folks who blaze over their birthdays and wish to let it pass with no celebration; I am not one of those people. I think birthdays are such a gift and a reminder that there was an era of queer folks who didn’t live beyond 25. I am here and honoring my life, and theirs as well. 

I like to celebrate the hurdles many of us queer folks have to overcome as young children like constant bullying and confusion over being different. Aside from being queer, I am a first-generation college graduate who hails from a single mother raising two kids. I know this sounds like an exaggeration, but one year, we were so poor that we ate nothing but pancakes for dinner for a whole summer. We now lovingly call that The Pancake Summer. I also grew up in a mobile home for nearly 20 years of my life. But, I had a wonderful community that helped to raise me, friends I still talk to this day, and memories of being an actual kid playing on a playground without my cellphone. 

Many don’t know that my father passed away when I was 17; though he left when I was 8 years of age. You see, he passed away while incarcerated for sexual abuse. Our family was devastated emotionally, physically, and financially. According to all statistics, I should not have graduated high school, made it into a college, much less graduated from a college. It was the arts that saved me. It was the arts that gave me additional family support. It was the arts that served as a missing parental unit, thus allowing my mother some time, peace and quiet while I was away at millions of rehearsals. I would be remiss if I didn’t comment that among the reasons I made it “out alive” was determination, yes, but also systematic privilege. Thus, my survival is bittersweet as I reflect on my many friends who didn’t “make it out alive”. 

So for my birthday, I ask that you respect the privilege you have and try to fight against systematic ways of life like racism, sexism, ageism, and judgment on socioeconomic status. Honor those fallen before you. Make way for more to come along in the following years, even if you won’t be there to see it. Celebrate your life and your accomplishments! We are all the colors of our fabulous queer rainbow.