We hear day in and day out that the struggles we face condition us to be well-rounded individuals. I remember being ambushed with a problem during my freshman year of high school threatening the LGBTQIA+ community. The LGBTQ+ students such as myself were being ostracized and attacked unprovoked by our student body and administration. For example, I would be chided for ‘violating’ our school dress code more than the average cis-hetero male at our school. Every policy that exists will be over enforced towards us. After several student/administrative conferences throughout my entire high school career, I learn that I will always be in violation of our dress code because the dress code is designed to target and suppress students who identify as anything other than cis-hetero. Hidden throughout the dress code, we see clear examples of our school diminishing femininity because there is an agenda to promote masculinity at this single-gender school. Under the specific inappropriate violations, it states, “The following appearance enhancers MAY NOT be worn at school: NO fake eye-lashes, NO wigs, NO hair extensions, NO lipstick, NO painted or acrylic nails, NO earrings (middle grades only), NO make-up, NO hair-coloring, and NO nose-rings.” These are all considered to be in violation of the dress code but these are all universally associated with femininity which is discouraged in prominent cis-hetero environments and it does not help that this school is single-gender. I plan to confront this every day if I have to in order to make sure the LGBTQIA+ community can exist in peace! I wore a subtle rose-colored chapstick and it was the end of the world. Administrators threatened to expel me and made me wipe it off. I will never forget the humility that flooded my bloodstream as I walked to the bathroom. My lips naturally have a salmon light coral pinkish undertone; the chapstick just defines the color. Something so little was a giant problem. These dress code violations threatened our individuality and creativity. Our dress code did not influence student success in class so why was this a concern? This issue encouraged me to join the LGBTQ+ task force as an ambassador to tackle issues threatening LGBTQ+ students in schools across the district. This issue motivated me to quickly take advantage of my role in the student government association and become involved in our school district student council highlighting issues that go unnoticed. This heavily affected the way I trusted adults in power; it influenced the way I interacted with them. This is a reason why students do not confide in their administrators because of bullying and fear of being invalidated. This experience taught me that with teamwork and passion you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. I am very passionate about the student body and our survival in high school and this definitely felt like being trapped in a warzone. Ultimately, when faced with obstacles now I simply think about how I can help develop solutions to ensure the comfortability and safety of Queer folks around me to protect our community from microagressions.