How do you know?

How do you know something's wrong?

When words

Say you need to be unique

But actions and unspoken rules

State you have to be normal

You have to fit in and don't dare to be different.

When it's no longer about who you want to be,

But what they want you to be.

And because they came before

they must be always right.

And because we are young

We must always be wrong.

When people hurt and hate and get away with it

Because it wears the guise of

Religious beliefs and political opinions

Law is to keep us safe

Religion is to give us faith

Safety shouldn't hurt us

Faith shouldn't frighten us

That's how you know something's wrong.

When a girl says she's "not like other girls"

Because she has been taught to believe that all girls are the same

Because she has been cultured into feeling being a girl is shameful

And being "like other girls" is the worst thing in the world

When girls can wear boys' clothes

Because men are powerful and superior

And it shows she's strong

But heaven forbid a boy wear a dress,

"He must be gay!

He's a freak!

Oh! Woe is me!

He must want to be a woman!

How weak! How shameful!

Doesn't he know that women are inferior?"

When certain people have to feel uncomfortable in their own skin

Because somehow your body is meant to define who you are.

I shouldn't feel uncomfortable in my own skin

My body is not me!

This body does not make me a girl nor anything else!

Gender is non-binary, Gender is fluid!

I should be able to be me without being mocked!

But I can't, so I hide.

I've hidden for far too long and it's time to break free.

For all of us to break free.

Cast off the chains! Tear down the walls!

We don't have to live in prison anymore!

But these four walls are all we know.

We were born within them and we'll die within them

Because we are so afraid of the unknown.

What if it's ugly?

But what if... it's beautiful?