The human mind has a striking propensity to class the universe in binary terms. Since the dawn of abstract thought, many of humanity’s most revered cosmologies have been built on dichotomies of good vs. evil, light vs. darkness, body vs. spirit, etc.. Today, dichotomies permeate nearly every aspect of our material culture and popular consciousness; we’ve even built them directly into the hardwiring of our most advanced machines.

Yet, reality rarely manifests itself as neatly as we’d like to believe. The universe is full of complexity, uncertainty, and twilight. And though it’s often difficult to reconcile with our concept of morality, ‘there is nothing either ,’good or bad but thinking makes it so.’

Stargardt makes me deal with this kind of ambiguity a lot. My vision is poor enough to inconvenience me, but not so severe as to leave me in complete darkness. I straddle the boundary between the blind and sighted worlds, never truly at home in either. That was a difficult concept to accept when I was first diagnosed, but over time, I’ve learned that ambiguity can be a source of empowerment.

In honour of LGBTQ+ History Month, I’d like to recognise how Stargardt has helped me accept that it’s okay not to fit perfectly into society’s categories of gender and sexuality as well. Just as I’m neither completely sighted nor blind, so too am I not completely straight, nor gay, nor any other label I’ve yet to encounter. To me, the human experience if far more complex than any single term can perfectly encompass. That’s why I like the concept of nonbinary identities so much, as they acknowledge and appreciate the extraordinary complexity inherent in the human experience.

Never quite fitting in has given me the confidence to be myself, even when that doesn’t align perfectly with society’s expectations of me. I want the world to see me as I am, not as just another paper doll cut to fit within the confines of a rigid, discrete box. Stargardt has taught me to celebrate my jagged edges and paint-splatters, with all the idiosyncrasies that might otherwise clash with the identity I’m ‘supposed’ to fulfil.