This has been a quandary for me – “To be or not to be… a Trans Activist”.
Activist throughout history have had all manner of ill-will, violence and never experienced ANY peace for the rest of their lives! Activists are constantly targeted and have every manner of legal (and illegal) troubles that they have to live through.
But WHO are the ones that get the results? The ones who organize, publicly march, protest, make loud public speeches – the one’s who put their faces in front of cameras, their voices through microphones and megaphones, and keep getting into “good trouble” to get their point across. Sometimes you have to “get in the face” of this hatred and ‘force’ them to notice you – the proverbial “banging one’s head against the wall” comes to mind! Repetition after many hundreds of hours and days may start to crack that shell of ignorance in these anti-Trans people – or those that may not be “anti-Trans” but bury their heads in the sand so they don’t hear about it. We also have to battle those that just don’t want to hear about us, don’t want to be uncomfortable or “get involved” even passively, so they want us (Transgender people) to “just go away”, thus tuning us (and our supporters) out, and allowing the extremists to win.
There’s a part of me who wants to scream from the highest mountain against all this crap going on, but there’s also the main part of me who doesn’t want to “rock the boat” – who just wants to live a normal, quiet, peaceful life. I am an admitted introvert and am probably in the “Social Anxiety Spectrum” – I do NOT like to draw attention to myself in ANY way. Whether I was living as a male or trying to live my life as female, I just want to be left alone – in peace.
BUT… how do we get people on our side? By letting all those people know who real transgender people are. Let the average person know that they know a Trans-person. I believe that was one of the ways that Harvey Milk got hetero-citizens to back him and the gay community to stop anti-gay legislation: he got his fellow gays to contact their family, friends, employers, etc. and let them know that they were gay – and he got LOUD, got public, and ran for public office.
So, is the entire Trans community all over the United States and beyond, going to stand up and declare “I am here, and I’m Trans”? From my own personal experience, many of the transgender folks I’ve met through my peer support group just want to be treated like any other female (or male for Trans-males) and do NOT want to stand out as Transgender. They want everyone to think of them as “just another woman” or “just another man”, and NOT as a Trans-woman or Trans-man. Go to a job, go to the store, go to an entertainment venue, go to a FAMILY GATHERING – just as the gender they transitioned to.
So, off of my long-winded, rambling, lack-of-proper-sleep-and-nutrition post here, what do others suggest we do to get the point across to family, friends, and the general populous that we’re no threat to them, their children or to ourselves – that is, if we’re treated with respect, dignity, and are given the same freedoms as every other American? Because when your rejected by your family, friends, colleagues, community and fellow citizens, it doesn’t promote a “healthy life”, both physically and especially mentally, for those that have be ostracized (10-time more likely to have a trans-suicide when there’s no support from blood-related family)
Okay, I need to get some sleep!! Goodnight!
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