I know and have worked with a transgender person. Born a male, she suffered until middle age with the knowledge that she was born with the wrong body.
She made the transition to becoming who she really is in her 40's. She had to do this with the knowledge that her successful business would certainly suffer.
I can't imagine how difficult it would be, how desperate you'd have to be to give up what had been your life for well over 40 years and finally give in to your personal reality and take the difficult steps needed to become who you really are.
If she travels to any of the states who have passed the new "Religious Freedom" laws she can be discriminated against. All of these new laws require, this chubby middle aged woman to use men's rest rooms, because on her birth certificate says she was born a male. The only thing that ever made her a male was being born with external plumbing.
Do the people passing these laws ever consider the damage they do. Do they think that she gets off on using a ladies room so she can catch a glimpse of a woman hiking up her skirt? They seem to think transgenders are perverts, that they made a choice to be who they are. They didn't.
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory has been bombarded with photos like these:
Hi Governor, I'll be using the bathroom with your wife...
Don't mind me Governor when you see me in the men's room touching up my make up.
Transgender Americans go through things that we can't even imagine going through and that's on top of all the BS that everyday life hands us all.
They deserve our support and most of all they deserve our understanding, compassion and empathy. They don't deserve what they are getting from right wing politicians, religious fanatics and their state governments.
It isn't a choice, you idiots. If it was, nobody would do it.
If you'd like to read more, here's Digby on the subject.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2016/04/springtime-for-pat-hb2-by-bloggersrus.html
Bob, you raise one of the most challenging issues of our day and you make good points.
ReplyDeleteI have written of a colleague who made a gender change and the challenges it presented to our television station and colleagues. This matter will force us to think in new ways. 60 Minutes featured such a piece last week. A young man who had been a champion woman swimmer now swims on the men's team at Harvard. He is in his correct gender now though he retains a vagina. These are matters that require us to think and put aside old ideas. As the old spiritual says "We are all God's children..." or to quote Lady Gaga "We were Born this Way"
We have a distant family member going through this. I got a note this morning saying, "Thanks for being supportive of me cuz. The line about it not being a choice is so true. I would never choose this. If we could all just love and accept each other for our differences. Life would be much nicer." 😀
ReplyDeleteOne can only hope more businesses and corporations will refuse to do business in those states, as some already have.
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