Growing up in a culture thick with stereotypical gender roles, and battling so much internalized fear of my own deviations from those norms, actually caused me physical anxiety when I saw people openly expressing gender nonconformity.
-- Jackson Bird (Chapter 5)

Importance: This quote demonstrates how the prevailing culture of stereotypical gender norms can have a significant impact on a person, whether they be trans or cisgender themselves. With this quote, readers see how Jackson internalized inexplicable fears and anxieties around gender-nonconformity from living in a culture with very strong and rigid gender norms. This quote helps readers to understand not only the psychological damage that they kinds of gender norms can do but also many of the misconceptions and internalized stigmas that Jackson himself had to overcome on his journey.

I had been shown someone like me, a queer transgender man, for the first time ever in the media, and the lesson I was being...
-- Jackson Bird (Chapter 6)