http://news.yahoo.com/barnard-works-toward-policy-transgender-admissions-132739873.htmlThere are a few things that have profoundly affected my life, and a couple of them I happened to finds just as happenstance. The first was Days of Remembrance. This is the period in which we remember and reflect upon the Holocaust. Being the curious person that I am, I visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's website,
www.ushmm.org. This led me to a page showing Identification Cards (
http://www.ushmm.org/remember/id-cards), showing cards identifying those victims of the Holocaust with a short write up about the individual. The fifth card show belongs to Friedrich-Paul Von Groszheim, whose only crime was that of being homosexual. Castrated and imprisoned in a concentration camp was his fate. He was only one of the millions persecuted because of nothing more than of faith, ethnic nationality, physical or mental deficiency or any other trait that was deemed inferior. The world shuttered upon 'learning' this, yet we continued to practice the same, some for years, some exiting to this very day.
While most have heard of Dr. Martin Luther King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" (
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html ), few have actually read it. I encourage all to take the time and slowly digest what is said. A poignant point to ponder is that although written over fifty-two (52) years ago, very little in this country has indeed changed, for "freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor..." A corollary to this dilemma is "The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people."
Desmond Tutu is another inspiration. I first saw him speak at the 2003 Graduation Ceremonies at the University of Pennsylvania. Perhaps one of the many quotes attributed to him, "if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have taken the side of the oppressor", is the most applicable here.
There are many APPS to assist us in our daily life. Unfortunately, as innocuous as some may seem, I find many repulsive. Refuge Restrooms is one of them. Many have either faced violence or been a victim of violence for merely using a bathroom. There are municipalities everyday seeking to bar the transgender from using the appropriate restroom, citing what may best be described as not only unfounded fears, but doing no more than to raise hysteria and hate. They fail or refuse to realize that the act of using a bathroom is a basic human right, one that is being denied legislatively. Naturally, I encourage all to use the appropriate bathroom wherever you are, regardless of what has been legislated.
I am encouraged by the flurry of new articles that can now be found everyday on societal changes being made to advance not the rights of transgender, but rather the end of the discrimination, for I have not chosen to be denied housing, for I have not chosen to be denied employment, for I have not chosen to be denied health insurance. I have simply chosen to be, another basic human right. Some say they we have reached the 'tipping point' (Time, June 9, 2014). Some say that they want to be on the "right side of history". I pine for right.
