This is coming up on March 31. Here is an essay from a gay writer about why this day is needed:
The truth is I still hardly ever talk or write about transgender issues. That’s partly because I’m no expert on them. There are only so many minutes in an hour (or lines in a column), and you can’t cover everything.
But to be frank, it’s also partly because I’m nervous about offending people whom society has already hurt enough. It’s a touchy subject, and like many touchy subjects, it’s often easier for those of us without a direct stake in it simply to avoid it.
And that’s probably as good a reason for Transgender Day of Visibility as any. Our discomfort around the issue—I know I’m not alone in this—means that we’ve got some learning to do. Bravo to those trans people willing to come out and teach us.
I second that sentiment. One of the more interesting aspects of my connecting with so many people on Facebook is the large number of transgender people that are now my Facebook friends. Many of them have expressed a deep appreciation for my simple efforts of trying to tell people that God loves them just as much as He does me.
I'm coming to believe that understanding transgender is near impossible for someone who doesn't directly experience it.
That's okay. God didn't tell us to understand people--he told us to love them.
I can do that. I hope you can too.
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"That's okay. God didn't tell us to understand people--he told us to love them.
ReplyDeleteI can do that. I hope you can too. "
What an awesome sentiment. And while you may not fully understand what it means to be transgender or what it's like to go through this process, you can appreciate, I'm sure, what it's like to be human with the desire to be the best person you can be with all that is given to you by whatever, whether God, yourself, your parents and/or the world.
Namaste.
For me, every day is a day of transgender visibility. That is because I can not register my car, or go to my insurance office, or sign my check without revealing that my legal name is not who I am.
ReplyDeleteBut visibility, I welcome. I welcome it because it will be visibility in the long run which changes the way society views people of variant gender identity or expression.
We are just people. Like all other people. Imagine, if you will, the way the world views a person of African descent. Seldom indeed is it (anymore) that this person will not be seen as a complete human being. Their rights are protected by law. Yes, discrimination exists, but the world, as a whole, sees the whole person, not just the color of the skin.
In today's world, it is still very much true that transgender persons are seen as only transgender. Not as daughters, or Christians, or artists, or poets, or as persons with feelings. To a pretty large number of people, we are placed together in the same light as child molesters, prostitutes & the insane.
But in truth, we are in the same light as these. We are all children of God. All loved in the light of the truth - that God created us as we are.
So I choose to be visible today. Every day. And each day I thank God that I have found the light.
Stephanie Mott
stephtopeka@yahoo.com
"See that of God in everyone," is how George Fox stated it as founder of the Quaker Movement. We have the power to remove bigotry, hated, and anger against others if we could only see that of God in everyperson. We are made in the image of God, if God is love, then we have the gift from God of Love and can exercise it with everyone we meet. We have more in common, than we have different.
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