On the Orlando shooting and a sense of erasure; Guardian, 6/16/16

Olivia Laing, Guardian; On the Orlando shooting and a sense of erasure:

"What can we do? How can we be visible, especially if we exist in the blind spot between accepted definitions? We can keep finding language, we can keep insisting on our presence, our right to exist.

This morning, there was a poem on my Twitter feed, next to the video of Jones on Sky. It was by Mark Aguhar, a trans poet of colour, and it was called “Litanies to my heavenly brown body”. A series of blessings, to all the gender categories Aguhar could think of. “Blessed are the cissies. Blessed are the people of color, my beloved kith and kin. Blessed are the non-normative. Blessed are the disabled.”

I cried while I was reading it, and I cried again when I found out that Aguhar had killed himself at the age of 24. It isn’t easy to stay alive. But that poem glitters with hope and so I want to pass it on to you, in the ardent wish that we will all learn to see the people we habitually erase.

Mark, I want you to have the last word.

Blessed is the spectrum.

Blessed is respect.

Blessed are the beloved who I didn’t describe, I couldn’t describe, will learn to describe and respect and love.

Amen."