Wed Jan 02, 2013 at 03:30 PM PST
On Being an Ally
by rserven
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/02/1175803/-On-Being-an-AllyAllies are a necessary ingredient in our gaining full inclusion in the world's societies. One can be one by simply being a friend, of course...an arm of support or a shoulder to lean against when times are hard are surely vital. But one can also be an ally by what one does or says publicly on our behalf.
[...]
People who are trans seem to me to have a particularly hard journey: The eventual recognition of the disconnect between the gender their bodies have and the gender they sense themselves as being, the years of dealing with that disconnect, the hard choice to rebuild their lives and all the repercussions of that choice, and having to do all of that with much of the rest of the world looking on and judging. That's a hell of a road to walk.
So the first question to ask is simply: Why make it harder for them? I can't think of any good reason for it; for me that solves that. The second question is: What would I want if that were my road to walk? If nothing else, I would want people to accept that even if my road is rough, where I'm going is somewhere I think is worthwhile and will help me be the person I want to be, for myself and for everyone else. That being the case, by the principle of the Golden Rule, that's what I should do for transfolk, if nothing else.
