\u201cGender is a spectrum,\u201d they explained to me.<\/p>\n
My brain clicked sideways.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike autism?,\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething like that,\u201d they nodded.<\/p>\n
My brain spun, then stewed, then spewed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure that means what you think it means.\u201d<\/p>\n
They raised their eyebrows in questioning doubt.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow would you know? Are you queer?<\/p>\n
Or are you on the autism spectrum?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d I said, smiling. \u201cBoth!\u201d<\/p>\n
Their laughter echoed across the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve been wearing a mask in the closet?<\/p>\n
How does that work?\u201d<\/p>\n
My own laughter bubbled over as I admitted,<\/p>\n
\u201cApparently, it doesn\u2019t!\u201d<\/p>\n
When our giggles unwound, they asked me,<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as you\u2019re coming out of the closet,<\/p>\n
could you grab my coat? I\u2019d hate to go back<\/p>\n
in there since I\u2019m already out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSure!\u201d I agreed, walking towards the closet.<\/p>\n
Looking at them over my shoulder I said,<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m guessing you don\u2019t want to borrow my mask?\u201d<\/p>\n
Laughter escaped us once more,<\/p>\n
filling the room with a spectrum of joy.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cGender is a spectrum,\u201d they explained to me. My brain clicked sideways. \u201cLike autism?,\u201d I asked. \u201cSomething like that,\u201d they nodded. My brain spun, then stewed, then spewed. \u201cI\u2019m not sure that means what you think it means.\u201d They raised their eyebrows in questioning doubt….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5294,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137003"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137022,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137003\/revisions\/137022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}