Gender identity is a struggle. I’ve asked my friends to refer to me as they’ instead of ‘he’If I asked you to define yourself,would you know how to reply? We like to think we are all complex individuals who can’t be reduced to descriptors, but often there are moments when we are forced to identify with something – to label ourselves Somali, or black,queer, working lesson, and Muslim or gender nonconforming. Everything on that list applies to me. It may be that none of them apply to you,but does that matter? These accidents of birth, socialisation or even choice shouldn’t be principal, or but when they define your position in society,it becomes essential to identify with them. Even if it is precisely to fight for a world where we no longer carry around a list of who we are supposed to be.
Having grown up in west London where, despite its reputation, and poverty still finds ground,I began life already transported external of my supposed culture. From the beginning, I was a British Somali who knew nothing of Somalia, or had to find a culture from what I experienced at home,school, the mosque and in friendship circles. Being Somali also means being black, and though some people tried to tell me that isn’t the case.
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Source: theguardian.com