Language
Pride on the Page Day #6
Each of the mini-essays I’m publishing for the month of June are part of a creative challenge to share joy during Pride. You can find out more in the link below. You can even participate, if you’d like!
6. Language
“I wrote something. An essay,” my friend explained. He was smiling. I took that as a cue to ask about it. He explained what he had written, a bit of the motivation behind it, that light still shining in his eyes. “Would you… would you like me to read it to you?”
“Yes!” I nearly shouted.
He cleared his throat, hands fumbling with printed pages. This was important. He had worked hard to put together this essay about an experience, about how it felt, about what it meant to him. As he read the words, his voice strengthened. I could feel the emotion in each phrase, the meaning beneath the words as they coursed through him and were gifted to me. I blinked slowly allowing the images and scenes he constructed to appear in my mind. His words took me on a journey, not to some foreign place or unknown experience but to a destination of shared language and understanding.
He took me home.
In the end I felt a gathering of emotion tingling under my skin. We were connected, he and I, through the language of being trans men in a world that often cannot see us and usually doesn’t understand our stories. But we could revel in that understanding together, just two guys talking about writing, listening to the words we each crafted in solitude.
Your trans friend,
Robin
PS - The friend in this mini-essay is
, a super talented writer whose work you might really love. I know I do. You can subscribe to his stack right here.
Thanks for sharing this moment, Robin...and also for the tip on Jake's substack. 🩵🩷🤍
@Robin Taylor (he/him)— this sings so deeply with the heart of #PrideOnThePage today. Language as home. Language as bridge. How often we speak across silences, waiting for the words that let us feel seen. And sometimes, the right listener is the one who helps that language land, breathe, become shared ground. You’ve captured this with such tenderness here — thank you for bringing it to our circle.