after Safia Elhillo
​
Gerard Way was born in either outer space or New Jersey, no one is really sure which, but it is
known that he will die somewhere in Orion’s Belt. Gerard Way leaves behind a comet tail of
black eyeliner and glitter in his wake wherever he goes. Gerard Way is nonbinary / Gerard Way
would’ve been nonbinary if he was born two decades later and knew all of his options. Gerard
Way has said he uses either he/him or they/them pronouns. Everyone uses he/him pronouns for
Gerard Way. Gerard Way and their careful androgyny acted as guidebook for all the mid-2000’s
genderqueer sad kids in black nail polish who were too passionate about Warped Tour. Gerard
Way spent too long on the edges of supernovas to notice their own starlight. Gerard Way didn’t
play a show sober until the second album. They lived in their mother’s Belleview basement with
amber preserved bats & replica swords & dozens of pill bottles. Gerard Way named their first
daughter Bandit. Gerard Way has probably stolen more than they gave, but who was keeping
count anyway. They could swagger into an arena & become extraterrestrial for the night,
something the queer kids in the crowd could almost touch, almost be, but not quite. Gerard Way
continuously made out with guitarist Frank Iero on stage during the Projekt Revolution tour, the
same tour where they met their wife. They later called it adrenaline, not attraction. Gerard Way
has never called themself queer. Still, we dug ourselves out of them. Still, we wrote them into
our own story. Don’t you know how hard it is to find someone you might be able to trust?
Someone who looks like they could wear your name? Call it a false god, call it idolatry, call it
marginalia, call it desperation. Call it what it is: an unidentifiable object flying above us and us
choosing to believe.