I've got this cousin who's like 10(?) years older than me
when I was a kid I thought she was the absolute coolest
she played football! she had short & wild haircuts that made our grandma fall to her knees and scream "what have you done?!!!!"! she dressed androgynous in the flyest of ways! and she could draw!
she studied graphic design but ended up becoming some kind of elite special unit firefighter, again pretty cool
she has a daughter but is separated from the father, she's had various long term relationships with dudes whose names have long been forgotten
every time we would hear that there was a new boyfriend in the picture, and he would be called something like Michel or Sylvain, my brother would say: .....do you mean Michelle? do you mean Sylvie?
in other words, the feminized version of the boyfriend's name
for 30 years my brother has been saying that she must be a lesbian, given everything I've mentioned
and for just as long I've been telling him that you can be gender-divergent and still be straight
here I am showing up at the church for my niece/goddaughter's baptism
my brother hurries towards me with a giddy look on his face
him: [cousin's name] came with a woman!!!
me: I can't tell if you're serious or not
on one hand I was like good for her god bless
but on the other hand the representation for the not-girly-but-still-straight community took a serious hit today and we grieve that departure
that thought took 8 seconds of my time before it was replaced by a bigger and stronger thought: omg she's done it again, she looks so effortlessly cool, how does she do it, teach me your ways, I'm literally a lifelong fan
later on we were chatting and I asked what her 13yo daughter was into, her interests and hobbies
my cousin: she's into makeup and hair tutorials..... [sarcastically] everything I love obviously....
my makeup-free ass was this close to telling her that her daughter doesn't deserve her and that she should adopt me instead
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