Alok Vaid-Menon

"I think I have a daily relationship with a sense of inadequacy. Ive written about this in the past, but when you are a non-binary person in this country in this time, theres an imposter syndrome for being alive, because people dont think that we should exist. And so every day I have to remind myself theyre wrong, because Im breathing, theyre wrong because Im speaking. And so I have to remind myself not only am I enough, but the very system that has and weaponizes a criteria that would rather disappear me, thats not a system that will ever evaluate me again."

"Were always gonna mess up because we are indoctrinated into a world that teaches us ideology, not compassion. So its not you speaking when you misgender me, its everyone that has spoken to you before. And in my life what I always try to remind people is I was not born with gender literacy, I was born hating myself and hunting myself and I had to learn too, so other people are gonna have to learn. And in that way, I think trans people can actually teach the world transition is possible, not just between genders but between paradigms."

"That is what love is for me, trying harder for each other."

"Being alive is about messing up gloriously, and I will fight for that ability to gloriously mess up because I dont believe that humans are statues or sculptures."

"Im non-binary, which means its not just that Im challenging the binary between male, female, man, woman, but between us and them. And in your statement, you said, "why dont I help them", as if this struggle is not your struggle too. The reason you dont fight for me is because youre not fighting for yourself fully. And any movement thats trying to emancipate men from the shackles of heteropatriarchy or emancipate women from traditional gender ideology has to have trans and non-binary people at the forefront, because we are actually the most honest. Were"