Today is the international Transgender Day of Remembrance. I have been blessed in my life to know a number of amazing transgender and non-gender binary people. They have been awesome, patient friends that have taught me a lot about myself, themselves and our place in the world. One of the things that I have been taught is the amount of hate they face on a daily basis. That hate manifests is harassment and, way too often, violence. With this in mind, I urge everyone reading this to reflect on what living with that kind of fear must be like. I know I cant really comprehend it, but just thinking about it ties my stomach in knots. To know that I could lose one of my friends due to someones bigotry. We, in Canada, claim to live in an enlightened at tolerant society but that freedom comes with the responsibility to stand up for those that are pushed to the edge of society and too often, that includes our transgender brothers and sisters. You may not understand their choices but respect doesnt require understanding, it requires acceptance. For those of you interested, there is the Transgender Day of Remembrance Flag Raising at City Hall happening along with the Trans Day Of Remembrance at 519 in Toronto. For those of you in other cities, please reach out to your various local community organizations if you want to partake. If you are unable or uncomfortable showing up at a public event, spend some time with yourself thinking about this very important, human rights issue. There are a lot of people counting on the good people of the world to ensure they are treated with same respect that many of you reading this take for granted. Thanks for reading.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 16:44:56 +0000
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