I have held my tongue through this entire situation because it is such a slippery slope. I see pros and cons with both sides of the argument. But what I will say is: Unless you are transgender or non gender conforming, I do not want to hear how you think I should feel about being called a tranny or a she male. It is not your place to tell me whether I am allowed to be offended or not. Just like it is not the place of a white man to tell me how I should feel about being called a nigger. Yes, a hispanic man can relate because he too is a minority and in a similar situation, but he is not black and there for his opinion is void on the matter. Drag queens can relate because at times we are stuck in the same boat but at the end of the day if you are doing this for art, coins, or kikis, you cannot know exactly what I am going through. Being a woman and dressing in womens clothing was a life or death decision for me. You take it off and can walk the street comfortable in the body you were born in. I walk every step in fear that the wrong person will find out whats between my legs and decide to make me a very horrifying statistic. 50% of transgender people are survivors of violent attacks 98% of these attacks are directed towards male to female transwomen 1 out of every 1000 homicides is a trans hate crime 1 in 12 transgender people is murdered 70% of transgender people murdered are colored. Not to mention that 49% of transgender people dont even make it into these statistics because they commit suicide. Its not about who I love, its not about how I dress, its WHO I AM? And unless you struggled your whole life feeling like your reflection was lying to you and the whole world was in on the joke, DONT tell me how to feel. Being transgender means risking the rejection of family, friends, physical and mental health, sufficient health care, human rights, safety, romance, employment and financial security, and the long list of things that were less important to me than being a woman.
Posted on: Mon, 26 May 2014 06:14:04 +0000