After a minute of this, his lungs [[collapse|His lungs]].

You're a trans woman. You decide to change your name and you tell it to the people you trust. Soon, this is the only name you use. Will you update your identity documents with the state? \n\n[[Yes|Yes change]] \n

The guards now sit together, holding one another, nursing their freshly collapsed lungs. \n\nYou go [[outside|Outside]].

Yes, their lungs [[collapse|Their lungs]].

First, you pass through the tall, heavy doors of the courthouse. You reach the armed guards and metal detectors. You do exactly as you are [[told|Say]].

To the handset you say, “I want to live like anyone else, secure in my rights, without having to fear for my life.” You are sure this is the right thing to [[say|Right]].

When you don't leave, the clerks ring the magistrate on the phone. They hold out the [[handset|Handset]] to you.

You walk around the city for a long time and it is perfectly quiet.

Yes, their lungs [[collapse|Their lungs]].

On your way out, you see the guards who had stopped you on your way inside. (You remember how they had pulled you aside: laughed and torn apart the books in your bag and put their hands on you for what was called a search). You stop to check if they are [[okay|Okay]].

At the courthouse it is [[no good|Good]].

At the counter on the second floor, you place your papers on the counter. You say to the [[clerks|Clerks]], "I'd like to correct my documents."\n

His laughter cuts through the receiver, but once the magistrate gets going he is unable to stop [[laughing|Going]].

At the Courthouse\n

The clerks start laughing and they step away from you. You wait. You won't leave right [[away|Move]].

Jamie Berrout

You think that it might be you, that somehow you are doing this. But it isn't you. You are not responsible for any of this, you think ill of no one, and you have done nothing [[wrong|Leaving]].

You hear clerks still snickering behind the counter. Do you wish their lungs will [[collapse|Yes them]] or that they [[won't collapse|Not them]]?