Gender roles are a colonial fiction.

The other day as I was walking into the restroom an older, white, straight woman accosted me and said, "Excuse me sir. What do you think you are doing?" I responded: "Going to the bathroom."

She looked disgusted and pointed to that symbol on the door, "This is the women's restroom, what do you think you're doing." I said, "Your point being?" and she said, "This restroom is for WOMEN!" and in this moment I was faced with a dilemma.

I knew that if I responded, "Your idea of 'woman' just like your idea of 'man' is a colonial fiction that was assigned to keep people ignorant, cause gender wars, and stuck in the lower realms of reality." she would have spit on me or called a manager over to handle the situation. I knew the only way she would let me go is if I said, "I am a woman." So I did and she responded "Oh you must understand why I was concerned" and backed away apologetically while keeping her bifocals from slipping off her nose.

And even though I got to pee I felt defeated because in so many levels in this world one has to claim "womanhood" or "manhood" or else they are -- politically, physically, ontologically -- denied entry (to the bathroom, to the movement, to the narrative of violence, to church, etc.).

I wish that everyone would recognize that femininity/masculinity does not have to be attached to the correct anatomical gender in order to be legitimate. I wish that everyone would stop rehearsing the same ol' tripe that a woman born with a vagina and a man born with a penis are sacred and a female expressing masculinity or a male expressing femininity are being fake or artificial and therefore should woman up or man up.

One should not have to claim a gender role to be treated with dignity. When will people evolve beyond a designated "gender" and see everyone as equal and stop believing in these colonial works of fiction?

When will people evolve?