I am man enough to be human

From Athens Boys Choir’s spoken word

I’m man enough to swish a hip and sashay you say?
Shoot I ain’t afraid to pierce a titty and swear and spit and all that shit
I’m man enough to be homosexual, heterosexual, metro-fucking-sexual
System testable without testicles,
a spectacle in ladies’ rooms cause I’m man enough, 
a spectacle in mens’ room cause I’m not…man enough?

Shoot I’m man enough to wear ladies’ panties and still. call them. panties.
Anyways, what is a man? What is a man? WHAT IS A MAN?
See I was a woman beforehand,
raised a girl before
what makes the man?
Culturally we make the man, socially we raise the man.
Ask my parents, they’ll understand.
Tell you I was daughter before son, and
still today I make a lousy one…

I was, a, tomboy, I ran to boy things, man things,
lesbian tendencies drove me to identify sexually,
gave excuses for my gender inadequacies.
Now questionin’ t, strappin’ down my boobies
Yes I said boobies, excussse me.
Years pass, by,
and it seems I’m always transfixed on some sort of
transformation, transmission from brain relayed to blank pages.
Paper, pen in hands reminding me I am man enough to be human,
I am man enough to be human
I am man enough to be human
I AM MAN ENOUGH TO BE HUMAN
I knew men dedicated to my true plan to expose
pronouns as a weapon.

There’s a gender box I’m choosin’ not to check in
so, check to a new you, and,
unwind that pronoun that binds you.

Gender’s more than the sex they assign you.
Sex is more than the gender they assign you.
Gender’s more than the sex they assign you.
Sex is more than the gender they assign you.

So I do the real you and stick to the, true you,
and I’ll be androgyny, the ability to live between,
transcending not trendsetting, transgender’s the word I mean.
Trans around, not found, on either. side. of the gender slide.
Yeah, I resist ‘em when I’m told to pick one

Dismiss ‘em when they fit me for a label that only half suits me
Nah, I don’t need that shit to lift me up, or,
break me down, or ground me into pieces for my complete being caught,
anarchy caught, noncomformity.
Yeah, there’s lots of words in the dictionary but not one
that fits wholly inside me.

Plus, we got this stupid. social. binary vocabulary
turning transman to half-life, half-man,
confusing transgender with transluscence,
a, watered down version looking for conversion
from a liquid to a solid state.

See there’s always something behind the name,
blocking our vision of forward terrain.
Well I’m ascending to planes with no label restrained
I’m feeling too free for four walls now peelin’, revealin’,
all of the above.