Transpeople: Don't Just Dance, Start a Movement!
by Jayne Henson on 2011-12-05 15:12:00
http://popbytes.com/huffpo?entryid=1119494&ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000019Why would anyone want to be transgender? As my granddad would say, "there's no future in it." This statement has been supported in the past by media portrayals of transgender people as sexual deviants, tragic jokes, or lives that ends in violence and definitely not success. With these kinds of images being all that one sees, it is easy to understand why many trans people seek to transition, pass, and "go stealth" as quickly as possible.
I myself remember tears in my mother's eyes as I told her that her son was really her daughter, after which she replied with a string of reasons why this "could not be," as well as her fears for my safety. The certainty in my mother's mind that my life as a trans woman was doomed to tragedy was asserted when I told her that I would be moving to New York City to pursue a career in HIV prevention, to which she replied, "I might as well be shipping you off to Afghanistan." Now, part of this statement could be the result of living in rural Kansas for all of her (and my) life, but what I heard echoed in that statement was the societal belief that trans people are not successful or respected.
