Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about how language shapes how we understand each other.

Vietnamese American poet Ocean Vuong writes in the memoir On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous: “Is there a language for falling out of language?”

Although I’d found the language to understand myself a few years ago, translating it to those unfamiliar with it, has been an ongoing process.

I’ve had the privilege of being able to open conversations around gender before I came out to my mom, but there’s still been a lot for us to learn, together.

Her openness to understanding through vocabulary that wasn’t previously available, created paths to living that didn’t seem possible before. I’m in constant gratitude for how she has come around around to embracing my transness and gender.

We need trans-affirming guides like the one recently released by NCERT so that parents and trans youth have access to the paths of living that are otherwise erased from language.

(chose this photo because it represents us accurately, though language can’t yet describe why)