You Don’t Own My Voice

You Don’t Own My Voice was written in response to the hate and harassment that many transgender and queer people have experienced in the Niagara region — including myself.

Over the past few years, I’ve had a number of encounters with the Niagara Regional Police while speaking out about misconduct and discrimination. Some of those experiences included being intentionally misgendered and treated in ways that felt meant to humiliate or discredit me. For many people in the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community, those kinds of interactions aren’t rare. They’re part of a pattern that leaves people feeling like outsiders in their own community.

This song is my way of processing that harm.

It comes from the frustration of watching a police service treat members of the queer and trans community as if we are problems to manage rather than people who deserve safety and dignity. But it also comes from a place of resilience.

Hate and intimidation are meant to silence people. This song is about refusing that silence.

No report, no label, and no attempt to erase someone’s identity can take away their truth. And no amount of hostility can erase the strength that exists in queer and trans communities.

You can try to control the narrative. But you don’t get to decide who we are. And you don’t own my voice.

TR#1: “You Don’t Own My Voice.”

Say my name — say it right!
We won’t disappear tonight!
Won’t you lie — truth remains!
You don’t write our names!

Verse 1

Streetlights flicker on a midnight file
Cold blue ink and a crooked smile
Badge on your chest but the truth’s on trial
You twist my words just to watch me bleed

You laugh when you say the wrong name again
Like power is a joke you tell your friends
Every lie you write with that pen
Is a wound you hope the world won’t read

Verse 2

You said, “Give me the name you had before”
Like digging ghosts up from the floor
Like who I am is something you store
In a box marked “evidence”

You kept demanding it again and again
Like dignity bends to the weight of your pen
But the name you’re chasing isn’t who I’ve been
For longer than you’ll understand

Pre-Chorus

You write it down wrong like the truth’s a crime
But identity isn’t yours to define

Chorus

You don’t write my name
You don’t own my voice
You don’t get to bury truth beneath your noise

You can try your shame
Try your little games
But I’m still standing here the same

The thin blue line you claim
Was never meant for hate
Not a sword for the powerless
Not a shield from fate

And the louder you lie
The more the truth will rise

You don’t write my name tonight

Verse 3

I’ve heard the stories whispered low
From people you’ll never know
Who learned too early not to show
Their fear when uniforms appear

The gay kid walking home at night
The trans girl under flashing lights
You treat our lives like they’re a fight
You came prepared to win

Spoken Word Bridge

You thought the badge meant silence.
You thought if you wrote the wrong name down long enough
the truth would disappear.
You thought humiliation was procedure.
Demand the deadname.
Write it in the report.
Laugh when we correct you.
But listen carefully.
There are thousands of us
who have lived through that moment.
The queer kid you cornered.
The trans woman you tried to erase.
The voices you thought would stay quiet.
The thin blue line was never meant to be a sword
pointed at the vulnerable.
And it was never meant to be a shield
from accountability.
Power without justice rots.
And the day is coming
when the bigotry hiding inside those uniforms
won’t survive the light.

Say my name — say it right!
We won’t disappear tonight!
Badges lie — truth remains!
You don’t write our names!

Final Chorus

You don’t write my name
You don’t own my voice
You don’t get to bury truth beneath your noise

You can try your shame
Try your little games
But I’m stronger than the lies you frame

The thin blue line you claim
Won’t hide the truth we state

Not a sword for the powerless
Not a shield from fate

And the louder you lie
The more the truth will rise

You don’t write my name.
You don’t write my name.