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P E R S P E C T I V E : S n i d e L i n e s
A Window or a Wall?
Pedal Miranda’s Ongoing
Acts of Resistance
Pedal Miranda at Orchard Beach.
BY SUSIE DAY
Twenty-four years ago,
Pedal Miranda was born
into a uniquely turbulent
American family, assigned
female at birth, and given the name
Gabrielle. Today, Pedal uses thirdperson
pronouns and identifi es as
transgender and non-binary. A poet,
artist, and prison abolitionist, they
work for Release Aging People in Prison/
RAPP, striving to envision a new
world of “collective liberation,” where
a carceral system is unthinkable.
Older generations (not unlike mine)
habitually envision collective liberation
as homogeneous, exulting masses
cheering universal freedoms newly
won by some top-down revolution. But
Pedal believes that collective liberation
starts within each self, then works its
way out — something much harder
to picture than happy, liberated multitudes.
Maybe we shouldn’t even try.
Instead, listen to Pedal.
The below portion features Miranda’s
responses during a wide-ranging
interview about their upbringing, identity,
family, and more.
What Makes a Person
My dad and mom couldn’t decide
on a name for me the fi rst week I was
alive, but one of my dad’s names for
me was Pebbles, because he thought I
looked like Pebbles Flintstone. That’s
where I got Pedal.
I grew up socialized as a girl. My
mom is a poet and a literature professor,
and my dad is super-smart, selftaught.
He grew up in an orphanage
in Cincinnati, ran away from home
at 15. My dad is white; my mom is
LINA REYES
Puerto Rican. Most people think I’m
part Asian, so the idea of passing for
me has been a big theme.
I was born into a radicalizing context.
Shit was always chaotic in my house.
My parents and my brother fought often.
We moved so much and my dad did
not always have a job. My mom provided
for us. Puerto Rico is a colony; my mom
was always very loud about that, which
has its own particular constructions of
race and identity. All these identity factors
politicized me.
But we also spent a lot of time
reading together and talking. When
I was 11, my mom put a copy of “Our
Bodies Ourselves” on my bed. That’s
how I learned what masturbation
was. She schooled me on a lot of the
things that people with vaginas face,
in ways that were kind of traumatizing
because I was so young.
As far as being socialized as a girl,
I didn’t experience body dysphoria.
I wore pink all day, I wore a dress. I
was into princesses. But I was very
competitive. In school, I would pick
the smartest boy in my classes;
that’s who I had to beat. I was often
the only “girl” who would speak in
class. I guess what I’m saying is —
I’ve always felt gender queer. I’m also
a switch. Like, I’m both a bottom and
a top in sex, and my fi rst sexual encounter
was with a girl.
Sometimes people think I’m someone
with a penis. In public I’ve been
gendered as a man. So, all this stuff
about what makes a personalways
felt in the forefront of my mind.
I’ve had a number of different partners
and I feel a difference being intimate
with people of different gender
identities. I feel like a different “they.”
They-They-They-They
I decided to start using they/them
pronouns one night, out with my friend
when I was in college. The college had
jazz nights on Thursdays, with live
musicians, the little club thing. We
were dancing, and it just entered my
brain: the beat of the music was “theythey
they-they.” I was so happy.
There was a fountain in front of the
main building, and afterwards, I put
my head in there to baptize myself with
the new pronouns. I then laid down in
the roots of this tree in front of the library.
This moment of coming into who
I am and feeling happy about it, with
the pronouns, was really good.
I say I’m trans, but trans as a
marker is still related to this idea of
what you’re assigned at birth. Being
assigned anything at birth is part of
the tools of oppression. I also identify
as queer. And when I date cis men, I
tell them, “You’re queer. I’m not a cis
woman — you’re attracted to someone
who isn’t a woman. So you’re queer.”
So I’m trans but cis-passing, which
is a weird concept. I’m not going for
looking like a man or a girl. That’s
a different experience from someone
who is identifying as a woman but
was assigned male at birth.
I’ve had people misgender me on
purpose — people I’ve dated and
people I’ve worked for — and most of
them have been cis, het, white men
who are just angry that I’m myself.
I say I’m not a woman, but the truth
is, in moments when I’ve needed to
fi ght back or be strong or defend myself,
I’ve embodied what it means to be
a woman. What I fall back on is a woman
self. But I’m gender fl uid. I think
I also could say I’m gender-queer but
my identifi cation is not really grounded
in one gender, it’s multiple.
In the Taíno culture, there’s Two-
Spirit, a kind of sacred identity. I went
to a Taíno Two-Spirit meet-up a couple
of years ago; there were little kids
introducing themselves with different
pronouns. But I don’t think I can say
I’m Two-Spirit — I’m not able to connect
to my Taíno ancestry without
co-opting that Indigenous identity.
My queer family, if I have one, is
two trans girls who are dating. I relate
to them as my moms; they call
me their son. They take care of me,
and this past summer we got arrested
together protesting after the murder
of George Floyd. We were handled
very aggressively and held in a Bronx
➤ SNIDE LINES, continued on p.19
February 25 - March 10, 2 18 021 | GayCityNews.com
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