Writer & performer. ivanecoyote.com
Photo by Eric Nielson
1. What is your relationship with the word or identity “butch?”
After many years of rambling and banging around in the “identity and labels” aisle of the english language, I have happily settled on butch. It is a big and beautiful enough category for me, and includes enough other folks that I can identify with and see as my family, my blood.
2. What kind of words and labels, if any, do you use to identify yourself?
Butch, queer, writer, artist, storyteller, Yukoner. There are others, but those are the first that spring to mind.
3. What do you wish you could tell your younger self about sex, sexuality, or gender?
Be kind. At least try to be kinder. To yourself, and to others around you, both strangers and intimates. You are just figuring all of this gender stuff out yourself, and things you think are absolutes right now will one day seem a lot more blurry, and complicated. Respect the differences of others, and honour who you know you are in your heart.
” things you think are absolutes right now will one day seem a lot more blurry, and complicated.”
So very true. It seems that each time I think I’ve got it all figured out — where ‘all’ could be most any topic — my certainty doesn’t last too many years. Then I’ll slough those ideas off like old skin and find new ones.