(NOTE: Refreshed English is used throughout this site.
See Glossary for more on RE.)
OFFICIAL COMMUNIQUÉ FROM THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE
FREESTANDING EVOLUTIONIST HAVEN OF JUSTICEA
Greetings from Justicea!
In honor of Pride Month 2021, our GFJ June post is a little different. The post below is written by Justicean Poet Laureate, Justy DeForest. Ke will be sharing one of our island nation’s favorite poems about our Ren Community, entitled “I Am the Earth.” Justy identifies as a ren and will share commentary on the poem afterwards. Ke begins with a little background about Justicea’s Ren Community for off-islanders.
Enjoy!
Justion Fairfield,
Minister of Cultural Affaires, FEH Justicea
Thank you, Minister Fairfield! I’m honored to be with all of you today to share my poem for Pride Month!
In Western Culture, Wenns are often associated with the planet Venus and Men with Mars. In Justicea, Rens — our name for those who exist between or beyond the gender binary — are associated with Earth. As Earth is between Venus and Mars, so Rens are between Wenns and Men. The symbol for Earth is a cross in a circle, which appears in the featured image for this post above between the symbols for Venus and Mars. Without further ado, onto the poem!
Poem: “I Am the Earth”
I am the Earth
between Venus and Mars—
Terra Firma, Solid Ground.
I am the ren
between wenn and man,
here to proclaim each gen a gem.
I am the ke
between she and he,
unlocking many a mystery.
I am the Mx
between Ms and Mr,
honoring honorable honorifics all!
I am child
of mother and father;
Sibling
to sister and brother;
Nibling
to aunt and uncle.
I am parent
to my children;
Comparent
to my niblings;
Sibling
to my siblings;
Nibling
to my comparents.
I will neither misname
nor deadname
a family member.
I am the deep purple synthesis
of placid blue yin,
ruckus red yang,
and steady grey yong.1
Mine is a hue of passion and purpose.
I am the intersex body
of X bulk and Genderfluid brain.—
A noncombatant in the Battle of the Sexes.
I extend my arms
to either bank of the chasm,
giving one hand to the soft-hearted
and one to the hard-headed.
I become a bridge of hope and healing.
Without “Me”
the USA is not US-All.
I sing, “Diversity is not perversity!”
I am the Earth
between Venus and Mars.
A dazzling galaxy we comprise together.
© Justy DeForest 2021
(Inclusive nickname of author’s four gender identities:
Nx. Juste, Ms. Justa, Mr. Justin, and Mx. Justice)
Two Cultures, Two Perspectives
I am a person of dual citizenship. I am American born, yet my mind is Justicean bred. I have never accepted the injustices that I have seen off-island, so I have chosen to reside in a country where those injustices do not exist. My goal is not to escape from the rest of the world, but rather to bring the justice of Justicea to the world. My approach in choosing this poem to share was to select a work that contain elements from both cultures.
American Culture
While the United States has been making progress towards gaining equity for LGBT+ people, it still has a long way to go. Two steps forward seem to be followed, at times, by one step backwards, and vice versa. Bigotry and violence — especially against members of the Transgender Community —are widespread and are more out in the open in the post-Trump era than they had been before that former president took office in January 2017.
However, acknowledgement and acceptance of our communities are on the rise among progressive people of good will, which gives me hope for the future. That being said, the problem of “gendered language,” which the ren speaker addresses in this poem. was influenced by my time spent in the USA, where the Traditional Western European Mindset about gender and sex (i.e., a person can have only one gender and it must “match” the “sex assigned at birth”) has only recently begun to be questioned more openly.
Justicean Culture
In contrast to the United States — and most of the rest of European-based Western Culture — FEH Justicea has a long history of accepting the existence and honoring the dignity of those who live their lives between and beyond the binary poles of Wenn and Man, and the Refreshed English spoken by Justiceans reflects that inclusion. (For more on Refreshed English, see the Glossary page of this blog site.)
The word “Ren” has long been used for those who inhabit these between or beyond spaces. “Ren” comes from the neutral-gender Mandarin Chinese word for “person” and arrived on Justicean shores with Silk Route merchants who used the island as their terminus port from the Fifth Century C.E.. It was adopted for its current use shortly thereafter.
The expression “Wenns + Men + Rens = Gens” is found everywhere in Justicea and reveals that Rens are as accepted as Wenns and Men in Justicean Society. As a matter of fact, one of the interpretations of the three leafs in the Justicean Triquetra is the three Gexual Categories of “Wenns, Men, and Rens.” And, of course, the equality of all these Gexual Categories is not only codified in law, but lived in community.
The Jubilation of Acceptance
Acceptance by one’s culture and of oneself leads to jubilation and celebration. My gender-gifted poems, while retaining a slight twinge of the alienation I sometimes feel as a ren when I am off-island, are mostly exuberate expressions of the acceptance I feel as a citizen of Justicea, for Justicea is a state — and a state of mind — that rises above the fog of lies that Traditional Western European-based Culture has dished out for millennia. It is a state of mind that realizes that a lie is a zero, and a lie told a thousand times still equals zero! Justicea is a mountain peak where the air is fresh and the view is clear.
Living in Justicea — or in accordance to Justicean values — brings with it an exuberance that I wish everyone could feel at all times and in all places!
Peace & Siblinghood!
Justy DeForest,
Poet Laureate, FEH Justicea
CITATION:
- Written Chinese, https://dictionary.writtenchinese.com/#sk=yong3&svt=pinyin
Yong can mean “perpetual” or “brave.” Yong is associated with rens in Justicea.
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