Queer As Family

Image: A woman with long hair sits in front of a microphone. Her name tag reads "Ms. Greene." Text: Recently, in a Congressional hearing, Marjorie Taylor Greene told Randi Weingarten that she's not a mother because Weingarten is the stepmother of her wife's children, not the kids' biological parent.
Image: A person with short hair and dark eyebrows. Their face is angry, and they appear to be yelling. Text: When I heard that?!
Image: A pregnant woman in a nightgown. Text: I thought of my own family. In 1977, my mom was 23, single, unemployed, depressed—and pregnant with me.
Image: A pregnant woman in a nightgown. Text: My biological father told her to get an abortion. He said she was a slut and I'd end up a no good bastard.
Image: A nun with a long, black habit, and a man with short hair and a black robe. Text: Her father, who once attended seminar to be a priest, said the same. My aunt, a Carmelite nun, called her a stain on the family name. She wanted my mom to have me in secret then give me up for adoption.
Image: A woman holding a baby. Both are smiling, and the baby is wrapped in a towel. Text: My mom held fast. She went on welfare for support, determined to have me and make a break from these unhealthy relationships.
Image: A man and a woman, both smiling. Text: While pregnant, she reconnected with her high school sweetheart, John.
Image: A woman and a man smiling at a baby. Text: He was there the day I was born, and they eloped the following year.
Image: A man holding a young boy. They are sitting at a table, and the boy is blowing out candles on a cake. Image: John is my dad. Biology or not. He raised me, loved me, and cared for me as his son. His queer son.
Image: A man and a boy sleeping next to each other. Text: Once, on a Reddit thread in response to an article I wrote, trolls referred to my dad as a "cuck," an alt-right slur for men who are perceived as betas. He's a hero, really. My dad. But men unwilling to face their own patriarchal pain can't recognize that.
Image: The outline of a man and a woman, similar to outlines used on restroom doors. Text: And now with this Marjorie Taylor Greene BS I am reminded again, as I am on almost daily basis, how these right-wing fascists denigrate and dehumanize anyone who doesn't fit their narrow, bigoted, normative world vision.
Image: A white line stretches across a dark background. Text: "They want to bring us back to the 1950s," my mom says. "They want to do worse than that," I tell her. "It's just terrible."
Image: A clenched fist. Text: I pity their lack of compassion and imagination. A closed mind is like a closed hand—it's a fist, a weapon.
Image: A man, a woman, and a baby sit on a couch. They are reading a book. Text: We stay open, because love is who you choose—queer as family.
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Brian Gresko is a writer and illustrator based in Brooklyn. Gresko co-runs Pete's Reading Series, Brooklyn's longest running literary venue, and is a co-founding member of Writing Co-Lab, a teaching cooperative. You can find out more at https://www.briangresko.com/.

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The Rumpus publishes original fiction, poetry, literary humor writing, comics, essays, book reviews, and interviews with authors and artists of all kinds. Our mostly volunteer-run magazine strives to be a platform for risk-taking voices and writing that might not find a home elsewhere. We lift up new voices alongside those of more established writers our readers may already know and love. We want to bring new perspectives into the conversation that will make us all look deeper.

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