My Voice is an attempt to come to terms with the difficulties I encounter as a trans person. I am a citizen of Poland, a country in which the Catholic Church strongly influences public opinion, and subsequent governments have represented conservative views for years.
My idea was to deal with the issue of the ever-present queerphobia with a dose of necessary cynicism. I confront my individuality with the larger community that has discriminated against me, despite the Greatest Commandment of love, claimed to be its faith’s core.
I decided to give the text a form of a prayer, and more precisely the Universal Prayer said collectively at the conclusion of the Holy Mass.
Instead of the Catholic ‘Lord, hear our prayer’, in my declamation, a much less solemn phrase is repeated over and over: ‘It is my voice’. The voice subsequently lowers: from high-pitched, perceived as feminine, it gradually drops down to low-pitched, typically masculine tones. I achieved this effect by recording in real time the changes in my voice over its mutation in the first weeks of my gender transition.
Throughout the footage only my voice can be heard: the embodiment of self-agency, the symbol of pride, the tool for changing reality.
TEXT OF THE PRAYER
I am an individual being, not a nameless community. A living organism, not just another statistic. A human, not an ideology.
It is my voice.
I deserve decent treatment just like any other human being. I shall yield neither to the pressure nor the manipulations of the media. I shall not be intimidated. I am not and shall not become a victim.
It is my voice.
I look towards every new day with hope. I stay not passive; I have no claims; I expect no pity. For everything I need, I shall fight.
It is my voice.
I affect the world that surrounds me and it affects me. Changes within us never end.
It is my voice.
I want to love and be loved. To trust and be trusted. To support and be supported.
It is my voice.
SPECIAL THANKS:
Dorota Kozieradzka PhD