We were born into worlds that weren't built for us,
We've jostled and twisted,  just to be able to feel like we could breathe. 
We have been octagonal pegs in square holes,  and there's not one amongst us who hasn't known the strike of the hammer that tried- through force,  to make us fit. 
We've been "problems that need to be addressed", and "why can't you just be normal"s.
We know what it is to be the butt of jokes,  and then told that we take these things far too personally. 
We have been beaten,  raped, and stripped of our identities and bodily autonomy  and, when one of us is murdered,  as so many of us have been,  and as so many of us will be,  we know that we will likely be  misgendered,  and slandered by media,  and maybe even family,  even after we are dead.  
We are not pathetic clowns; we paint ourselves brightly because our lipstick is war paint,  and our lives are a daily war in a world that's determined to marginalize us, to humiliate us,  and to kill us. We may lose this battle,  but we will win this war. 
Stonewall was only the beginning.