As a queer person, a political awakening is not optional. I learned what being gay was from my elementary school bullies. I learned how the government discriminates against queerness when North Carolina passed HB 2. I learned that my school administrators were there to protect me as a student, but not as a queer one, as they asked me to not wear makeup to school or express pride in my queerness. Most recently, I learned that my university was willing to accept my free labor in orchestrating student events until those events involved my work as a drag artist.