Inspired by Zoe Leonard’s I Want a Dyke for President, Jalilipour wrote this text as the stories of Iran’s revolution took over their social media and their life, with many LGBTQ people in Iran photographing themselves in public kissing and holding pride flags. For months it became all that Jalilipour could think about, wondering what will happen, and what it would mean for them and people like them: queer people in Iran and in the Iranian diaspora. The revolutionary statement that “we want a trans president” seems like an impossible dream, but for Jalilipour, the only future for Iran is one that includes queer and trans people. This statement must also be applied universally in resistance to global threats to LGBTQ rights and leadership, responding to the many countries rolling back trans rights, female leaders resigning their posts, and the death of the first transgender mayor in the world, Georgina Beyer.
