Camilo Loaiza Bonilla
Executive order calls it “gender ideology”; trans men call it “I just have to pee.” Use arrow keys* to navigate in and out of different rooms, interacting with icons (♂) along the way. Time to choose: Women’s or Men’s?
*on mobile devices, slide to move the avatar
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<-- Women’s | Men’s --> explores transgender nightmare: public bathrooms. In this game poem, players step into the shoes of a trans man, free to move in and out of gendered bathrooms as they choose. As in real life, each decision is consequential; interactions with different icons will lead to new pathways and new poems. Through its 8-bit design and playfulness, <-- Women’s | Men’s --> acts as a site of trans joy and radical acceptance.
Camilo Loaiza Bonilla (he/him) is a Latine writer and artist working to unwind generational silence as a queer, trans, first-generation immigrant. He will receive his MFA from the University of South Florida in May 2025, and in August 2025, he will have a solo museum exhibition (Raíces/Roots: Camilo Loaiza Bonilla, curated by Dr. Lesley Wolff) at the University of Tampa's Scarfone/Hartley Gallery. As he explores the intersection of poetry and visual art, his work is in or forthcoming from Quarterly West, Los Angeles Review, Florida Humanities, and elsewhere.