TDoR 2015 A Time to Remember

November 21, 2015 Cupcake

As we honor or dead on this the 17th Transgender Day of Remembrance, I see a country torn apart by bigotry and hatred. I see Transgender men and women being murdered in a number never seen before. I see children that are trying to discover their own gender identity committing suicide. I see hatred for those people that do not fit into the box of what is “normal”, whether that be Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Black, White, Brown, Muslim, Christian, Mormon, young, or old…

People, please see that we are one people that live on this blue planet in space. I read a passage the other day that referred to the idea that although there are many religions throughout this world there is but one GOD… now you may say this is arrogant to think this way but, step back for one minute and think, how important that really is in our life… we are but a speck in time on this planet, less time than the dinosaurs so far, but yet we are the most destructive to one another over what…. our religious beliefs?  Is that civilized? Is that what man (woman) was placed on this blue planet to do? Fight? I think not.

Here is my idea; we were placed here to learn from one another, to understand one another, to help one another. No religion I know of preaches murder, hate, intolerance, just the opposite the great religions of the world preach love, compassion, understanding. Why do you say am I speaking of this in a blog about TDoR? I speak of these things because as a Trans woman I am told that GOD does not love me, that I am a man in women’s clothing, that I will never be a real woman, I can never understand what it is like to be a real woman. I say this to those statements; I think , no I know all to well what it is like not to be equal to anyone in society, to have no where to turn in times of need because no one would understand me growing up, (I am a child of the 60’s). I know discrimination from my racial background (Mexican Indian and American), I know feeling that I don’t belong in the body I was born into, the feeling of inadequacy, the feeling of being “different”, “not right.” No, I will never know the feeling of having puberty and going through the “change” of starting my period, or of menopause, but all of these other things I have found out in my five years of transition have led me to understand what we feel, be it man, woman, or transgender individual is my feelings and your feelings are what we have in common making us human.

We all need to take a step back and see one another for who we are, what we can bring to the table of learning and understanding, what we have in common. All religion teaches us that we are to respect one another… why then do we kill each other?  Why do we allow bullying to the point of someone taking their own life? Why do we exalt ne religion over another, why is your belief system right and mine wrong?

271 lives were lost this year because those people were not allowed to be themselves, be who they knew who they were inside. What makes this wrong? What gives anyone the right to impose any judgment on how we are to live our lives? My life is unique, your life is unique, so who is to say that my unique life is wrong, or your unique life is wrong?

Killing us in the numbers we are seeing is out of fear and ignorance. This fear and ignorance leads to hate and bigotry, which we have seen rise across the United States in the form of “Bathroom Bills”, “Religious Freedom Laws”, Fear mongering, and intimidation. Making our lives less valuable that a cisgender person is what is currently underway. This year a defense lawyer in New York was  arguing at a sentencing hearing and he stated that a 30 year sentence is too much punishment for his client for killing a “tranny”, if the life he took was a banker on Wall street, then that would be proper. A judge imposed a sentence on an admitted murderer of a transgender woman of sixty days jail and ten years probation. In a recent killing on the east coast a trans woman was killed by her friend because he was “outed” as being a friend of a “tranny”, he became embarrassed and murdered her.  Are these murders of these trans people any less valuable to society that the Wall street executive? Is this what this civilized society will accept as right and just? I hope not.

I have an idea… Why don’t we open up conversations about what it is to be transgender? Being transgender in a society where we are vilified, made a mockery of, or made to feel less than human on a daily basis.  Why don’t we discuss how the transgender population survives in a society where we have unemployment of 8 times the national average, where 70% of us live below the poverty line, where the attempted suicide rate is 41%, all in a population of supposedly less than 300,000 in the United States. Those are conversations we need to have, to be open with one another, to learn from one another, to help one another. This is what all of the religions of the world require, this is then civilization, (being civil to one another en mass), this is what this big blue planet needs, no demands of all of us.

Please in this time we honor our dead let’s all fight like hell for the living.

 

Jeriann

 

 

 

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized

Trackback this post  |  Subscribe to comments via RSS Feed