Abridged version (feel free to respond to just this!):
Current event articles/videos/publications on trans issues can be really depressing, be it the contents or the reactions of the consumers. How have you learned to deal with these viewpoints as they relate to your life and your person? How has the experience changed your perspective? Are you still struggling with the issue?
Personal experience version:
I used to seek out a good deal of knowledge about transgender current events. Many of these articles and news stories -- on the internet, especially -- are full of negative people making extremely uneducated commentary.
I sought these stories out for years and years, most likely as a way to patch my social insecurities. As a sufferer of dysthyma & major depression (something that has improved considerably with therapy and taking more of my life into my own hands), it wasn't difficult for me to be unrealistic and let this sort of news control my emotions and perspective. It really got to me and made me feel invalid as a person. It made me feel afraid to express myself and afraid to be myself among strangers. I felt defeated and beneath the heel of the general public at large, but when I read the commentary and feelings of people associated with these stories, I felt that way doubly so.
At some point in the past year or two, I think I may have numbed out to it. I simply experienced the feeling so many times that it was too stale to affect me as deeply. Obviously, this wasn't the healthiest way to become resilient, but I do think it is what happened for me. As I became weary of the same old thing, and my calloused interpretation made me care less and less about the negative, I began to focus on the positive aspects of readers for these stories. I sought out articles and videos in more neutral settings or settings which had more youth and more liberal thinking (like youtube -- for the most part). I tried to be rational and accept that many people who seek out trans articles are already negative and have a pre-existing agenda; that people who are neutral or positive don't find us alien and fascinating enough to seek out news and express an opinion. That when the latter groups click on one of our links, they aren't already creating a response and don't feel educated or involved enough to argue.
When these realizations finally stopped bouncing off of me, I felt much better.
I'm posting this now because I encountered an article about a recent Colorado school's decision to allow a young trans girl to use the girls' bathroom. Some of the girls' parents spoke out, along with some obscure organization, to say that they were "victims" and that they were essentially told "their girls had no rights." Before I even finished reading and watching, I stopped and realized just how many people would think this was a bit absurd and that it would be silly to let it bother me. That it's silly for anyone to expect that all or even most people will always be okay with you. That if I'm a good person who most people seem happy to interact with, the people who arbitrarily reject or disrespect me are very likely to be unpleasant at large, and I don't want them in my life.
I know some of this seems elementary, but I think the journey of strength for a person who is an object of prejudice is never elementary.
How did the rest of you deal with this sort of challenge? Are some of you going through it now? I'd love to share in your thoughts.
