Queer B.O.I.S.

May 7, 2012 facebook.com

::Meet This Boi::

QueerBOIS, we’re turning our “Meet This BOIS” series to the Pacific Northwest region of the States to Oregon. Ty Chance, one of our newer contributors and an amazing photographer brings QBs Cherokee Andrade, a gender fluid queer boi who shares personal stories of family, growth, change and the right to claim who we are. Queer bois, please take sometime and get to know Cherokee, a handsome boi with a warm tale…

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“Family is inherently important to me. With that being said, it isn’t always easy to come out of the closet and maintain a consistently positive dynamic with those who raised you. I do, however, have a complicated, yet loving relationship with my Dad. He makes the most effort out of any of the elders in my life to know who I am. For that reason, things that remind me of him are dear to my heart. I find myself drawn towards train-tracks. My Father has been a railroad engineer for over three decades. On all of our family vacations, we would find railroad tracks and we would flatten pennies together while he would tell us what kind of locomotives were pulling the carts. It was some of our happier, more carefree moments. I like thinking of him like this. I like remembering how he could get so caught up in talking about what he was passionate about that it was almost like his worries would float away, just for a little while.

I think it is important to have something like that, something in your life that is so relaxing or freeing to you that it lifts the weight of the world off of your shoulders, if even for but a mere moment. Life is complicated and hard. I believe that figuring out who we truly are is one of the most difficult tasks one can undertake. Do any of us really understand all of the inner workings our very own selves? Why we feel, act, and think the ways that we do? I doubt it. In this way, gender is also quite complex for some of us. I’m sure some people come out of the womb knowing just what gender means to them their whole lives, but not I. I am not male identified, but I am not traditionally female identified either. I consider myself gender fluid. I am young, and growing and changing every day. I am not drawn to the idea of labeling myself, orientation wise, for all to see. This is why gender fluid appeals to me, because, for me, gender is just that — fluid. Ever evolving. When I look at who I was ten years ago, I am overwhelmed with how much I’ve changed and who I have become. I imagine I’ll probably feel that way in another ten years, too.” - Cherokee Andrade