Bookmark and Share

Friday, September 4, 2009

Meet Jenna

I am a student, poet, artist, activist, comic, commuter, lefty, and more.

I am also an Aquarius, unicyclist, martial artist, writer, singer, skater, scrapbooker, facebooker, videographer, and so many other great things besides queer!

At 5'3" on a very good day, I am a 'little person' with a BIG personality, and as a close friend puts it, "as androgynous as the day is long". That's just about twenty-four hours of androgyny, which is a pretty decent chunk, if I do say so myself.

And, Speaking of saying, when I am speaking, I ONLY say what I mean, ONLY if to inform or enlighten someone, or perhaps amuse them, and yet, I still talk a lot. Go figure.

I believe gender is as fluid as race and orientation itself. While the majority of us are either male or female, straight or gay, black or white or Hispanic or Asian, right handed or left handed, there is a significant minority of those who are both, who are neither, who blur the line, or just plain ol' play hopscotch over it, depending on the day. Nothing in nature is truly black or white, either or. What fun would coloring be without the grays, the purples, the greens, the red-oranges and blue violets? While most paint the world in four colors, straight out of the complimentary crayon box children receive at their favorite Friendly’s or Denny’s, I strive to draw a world free of boxes, and to see every human being not as a type but as an individual.

At (practically) twenty years old, its hard to see the wrongs in the world and not walk around like you know everything. I may be young but I feel I've gotten a head start on my journey to further equality. As a graduate from Bay Shore High School, I fervently protested the community's lack of pride in our greatest graduate, Harvey Bernard Milk. Thanks to the support of a few close teachers, and some amazing timing by Gus Van Sant, my old school now has much more than a dinky picture of him below Robert Entenmann (of Entenmann's bakery, which I must admit, does in fact have the greatest soft chocolate chip cookies of all time, but this is besides the point). This was just a small start in what I've realized to be my greatest goal and passion in life, and that is fighting for equality.

As I progress further into my college career, I am determined to practice what I preach and continue to live and love as more than just a queer, but as a good human being. I am proud to be a part of the LGBT community, and I can be proud and still be myself. There are sp many people in the world who know few if any LGBT individuals, and if they do, they know them only as "the gay kid" or "that lesbian", etc. You may know what I mean. I feel that the best I can do for the equal rights movement, as a constant representative of it, is to be nothing but the best individual I can be, in every way, and to speak out and encourage others to do the same and live free from such 'boxes' and to be themselves!


In other words, and this may or may not be a pun: There is no sense in letting the media's constant involvement in one's life wrap oneself in a label as if it were a Snuggie, the Blanket With Sleeves.

Maybe? ...Well, I say its a pun if it so identifies itself as such. Like I was saying, who am I to judge?
I met Jenna when a mutual Twitter friend referred her to me. She enthusiastically agreed to be a face of the day. Thanks Jenna!

4 comments:

  1. Let he who is without sin cast the first Snuggie.

    WOOT!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much for the opportunity Hugh!

    ReplyDelete
  3. If the world were filled with Jenna's, it would be a wonderful, amazing, fascinating and kind plate.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Place. Not plate. Well, maybe plate too. I was eating when I wrote that.
    Place, Jenna, place.

    Note to self: No eating and typing at the same time

    ReplyDelete