I had a lot of internal struggles with the D word, (that thing that holds back water), particularly when I heard fellow queer ladies using it. No one ever said it to me as an insult directly, but I heard a lot of homophobic people calling women D--ES if they had short hair, dressed in a non-femme style, or if they just didn't want to go out with some guy. It was clear to me growing up that a D---E was a bad thing, yet I wanted to date women, so I fought myself and my wants for years. It wasn't until I met an acclaimed, queer writer who happily referred to herself as a D---E that I understood the idea of reclaiming a word. She liked it and found some power in it. I took the other route and decided not to use it. The D word has since fallen out of fashion which is fine with me. It always had a sharp undertone and a vague threat to it, despite its reclamation. This piece made me remember all that, so thank you.