Janet Mock
Writer and advocate; author, 'Fish Food: A Memoir'
Why I'm Standing With LGBTQ Youth on Spirit Day and Beyond
Posted: 10/15/2012 11:23 am
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-mock/why-im-standing-with-lgbtq-youth-on-spirit-day-and-beyond_b_1943327.html (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-mock/why-im-standing-with-lgbtq-youth-on-spirit-day-and-beyond_b_1943327.html)
By the time I was a sophomore in high school, it had become routine for me to be sent home for wearing dresses. My mere presence in a skirt became an act of protest that would get me called out of class and into the vice principal's office.
"You're making students uncomfortable," the vice principal would say. "They can't concentrate on their studies."
I argued that they couldn't concentrate on their studies because they were too busy gawking at me, whispering about me, giggling at me. My dress wasn't the problem; their ignorance and intolerance was. I couldn't understand why being myself warranted reprimands.
This vice principal did not take into consideration how long it had taken for me to gather the inner strength to openly express my femininity. He did not think about how calling me out of class because of my garments disrupted my education. He did not care to realize that by singling me out, he was validating some of my peers' taunts, making me look all the more like some kind of deviant.
This kind of thing happens in the US because people try to pretend that transexualism doesn't exist, or they use it as a joke or taunt. Before my fiance discussed her feelings with me and I actually did a little research, my only experience with transexualism were the stereotype of transexual prostitutes, the "Two-Spirit" people of Native American tribes, transexual men in Anime, and Eddie Izzard. It's rather horrifying how well society crushes the idea of "new" differences between people. My ignorance convinced me for the longest time that my fiance was a gay man, but only because I could clearly see that she was not a straight male. I didn't have the tools to look to to help her figure herself out earlier, and it may be working out, but who can tell what good could come of having more of those lost years?
There's no sense in wallowing in events that can't be changed, but I feel like I learn more reasons that the American education system and bigoted American ideals are crap that are ruining the world everyday .
Guess I'll be wearing purple this Friday :)
but yes it's not just US that likes to pretend we don't exists.
Its there to some extent in almost every country, while some are even worse than US. However, it's still no excuse for discrimination and ignorance.