how to be rejected by your local drag king workshop

You are leaving a wedding when you receive the great news: You’ve been rejected! Rejoice, the disappointment we were all waiting for has come. This news stings like a yellowjacket to the center of the tender flesh in the palm the same way that reading ‘Mrs.’ aloud from the seating assignments did earlier today. Rejection or acceptance, it does not matter, you remind yourself, as you sink into bed and into your old habits as easily as a silk nightgown. People will always see what they want you to be. There is a version of you who was ready and eager to join this drag king class—you know how everyone always says in order to do the things you want to do with your life, you actually have to do them? That’s the you that you envisioned in that seat, not the you who cannot bear to rip off a corner of the home they’ve made to create a window for something new. Rejecting that you, well, that’s just a sign that perhaps your fate is sealed: you are who they say you are. 'There are many paths to the stage,' the rejection email reminds you. You know that this is just a kind way of saying, it’s not you, it’s me. A breakup? But we weren’t even dating. You are leaving a wedding and you receive the great news: You’ve been rejected! Despite this being one of your worst fears, you feel like a balloon that has finally been allowed to inflate. They are never going to see what they want you to be—and that’s okay. You have all the space, dangling as a dot among the stars, to grow larger than the box they put you in. There was a version of you who was ready and eager to curl your limbs into the smallest space inside that box, feet over your head, unnatural and uncomfortable, until that ‘Mrs.’ on the seating chart would wake you from sleep like an alarm clock. Rejoice. The disappointment we were all waiting for has come. Remember what they said—in order to do the things, you want to do with your life, you have to actually do them. 

By Fin Leary

Fin Leary 📷: Amanda Macchia Photography

Bio: Fin Leary (he/they) is an author, program manager at We Need Diverse Books, and faculty at Emerson College, where he teaches in the MFA program. He is the editor of the sci-fi anthology Future States of Stars (OwlCrate Press, 2025) and a contributor to the horror anthology These Bodies Ain't Broken (Page Street, 2025). His young adult fiction has been supported by Lambda Literary, Tin House, and GrubStreet. His creative nonfiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He lives with his orange literary cat outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Follow Fin on: 

Instagram: @finleary 

TikTok: http://tiktok.com/finleary 

Substack: finleary.substack.com 

{Image description: Fin is standing in a field of tall with autumnal trees in the background. He has pale skin, short dark hair and is laughing, revealing two long and pointed vampire-style teeth. He is wearing a black shirt, a black red and silver vest, and is holding a red notebook}