I am the boy who never finished high school, because I got called a ->-bleeped-<- everyday.
I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.
I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.
I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.
I am the man who lost custody of his kids because the courts found out I dress in woman's clothes.
We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.
I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.
I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.
I'm the man whose family turned there backs to me because I wanted to become a woman.
I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had.
I am the effeminate boy who killed himself just weeks before graduating high school. The abuse was simply too much to bear.
We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom apartment for two men.
I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.
I am the mother who is not allowed to visit the children I bore, nursed and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.
I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.
I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.
I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.
I am the woman who died when the EMTs stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.
I am the person afraid to step out my door because I know I will be criticized and shunned by people who don't even know me.
I am the man who stopped attending church because they closed their doors to my kind.
I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.
I am the person who lives alone, shunned by the children I raised because I am transsexual.
I am the person ashamed to tell my own friends I'm a lesbian, because they constantly make fun of them.
I am the boy tied to a fence, beaten to a bloody pulp and left to die because two straight men wanted to "teach me a lesson"-------------------------------------------
Everyone has a life to live. Let them live it as themselves in peace.
Something to think about.
Julie
I think we can all relate to this in one way or another. Its an emotional piece, for sure.
Julie,
I love it. When I was on the Human Rights Commission with the Gender Identity committee, I think I saw every one of those passages. It is very lonely world out there for people who do not conform to the norm. I will include this forum too.
Sheila
Wow! That was an extremely moving work of literature. I'm almost speechless (yes, almost, it's hard to shut me up!) because even I have experienced one of those scenarios.
Reading that doesn't make me sad; it makes me absolutely furious.
I agree with you Stormy. All of us have experienced many of these. I don't often use this terminology often, but it really gets me pissed off how callous the world can be, how dirty it really is, and how all of society lets this kind of crap continue.
It doesn't just happen to us by the way. Just look around and you see it in every nook and cranny of society.
I fight this kind of behaviour head on whenever I see it. I'm pretty vocal about such things and I've become somewhat a spectacle at times in public. This is probably the only sort of thing that brings me to anger. It's righteous indignation.
Reading over this again, brings me to tears because it hurts like a knife, inserted and twisted.
Cindi
Cindi,
These are reasons I keep going back and participating in Human Rights. I try to get out of standing up and I always get sucked back in. I'm a sucker for the underdog. Cindi, you are right, it just doesn't happen to us, but others out there too. Even the Christian Right get their rights stomped. I don't like to see anyone get hurt and yes it happens, way too much. I have let go with a lot, but when you see things like what Julie posted, it gets you hot. It does me anyway.
Sheila
My God, Julie! It makes me mad and sad at the same time! :icon_no: >:( :'(
tinkerbell :icon_chick:
You know, I sometimes wonder if I am already dead.
I am more moved by the child having his leg blown off by a old forgotten landmine than I am with the garbage with get to live though.
*shrug* Life is poopie, nothing new there.
The basic idea of this is that if you want to go looking for the wrong and injustice of life you can find it aplenty is just about everything. But in the same vein you can find quite a lot of good is some of the strangest places. ...
Something I wrote to another some time ago, "In tragedy lies hope." I will leave this at that.
Quote from: Kimberly on December 30, 2006, 05:46:57 AM
You know, I sometimes wonder if I am already dead.
I am more moved by the child having his leg blown off by a old forgotten landmine than I am with the garbage with get to live though.
*shrug* Life is poopie, nothing new there.
The basic idea of this is that if you want to go looking for the wrong and injustice of life you can find it aplenty is just about everything. But in the same vein you can find quite a lot of good is some of the strangest places. ...
Something I wrote to another some time ago, "In tragedy lies hope." I will leave this at that.
Kimberly, in your signature box you have a Japanese quote: "Fall seven times, get up eight." I like that. It's a heck of a lot better than "Life sucks, then you die."
This post is something I received through e-mail. It says so much so simply and I felt it needed to be shared. What it did to me I see it has done to some here, it gets you mad.
"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"
We have allowed ourselves to be punching bags. We too often take the attitude, "Hey, there's nothing I can do. That's life." If we want change we have to fight for it!
It's things like phobias and the resulting injustices that get our blood boiling and make us stand up for our rights. We need to keep the fanning the flames so we don't fall back into complacency, resigning ourselves to being the whipping boy of society.
Julie
Grrrrr >:(
I am reminded of the famous quote made by someone about the 1930s in Germany "first they came for the Jews...." until there was no one left.
This is why I am politically active, none of us are truly free of oppression and discrimination until all are.
zythyra
Makes me sad. Although I've seen this or something like it before it's good to see it again (this one seems longer actually). I know someone who needs to read these words, problem is I already told her I was never speaking to her again.
I have to agree with Cindi and Stormy. The truth of this post makes me angry.
Sometimes we don't understand the depths of stereotypes and predijuces until we are in the middle of them. I used to have a nasty case of being an MCP. (Male chauvanist pig) And look at me now!
Chaunte
Me too Julie! Stormy Weather said it...FURIOUS!!!!!!!! :icon_chainsaw:
I guess i experienced a little of these things but holding onto the male front and staying hidden i have not exposed myself to a lot of what you brave girls have or will......
My utter respect no less is sent!
my social fobias are limited but very real and very scary!
Ugghhhh
Thanks Julie it's an issue that needs to be shared and discussed not something good to keep bottled up for any of us! At least we can share, love and cry and be fearful here.....
luv
Ricki
Yeah, it's true. I think we're all very aware of the fact that American society is completely, hopelessly borked beyond recognition. The system is broken, ladies. It's a cracked piece of outdated hardware ingrained with so much racism, greed and hatred that just skimming the surface of that corruption is enough to make even the staunchest faint.
So what do you do? Well, some of you have the right idea. You get pissed.
I don't fear dying. I fear dying quiet.
~ Blair
that's deplorable.
QuoteI don't fear dying. I fear dying quiet.
~ Blair
Blair i really like this!
Very Nice
Ricki
A counter-list, giving hope, refusing to be broken...
I am...
I am the guy who came out to the entire school in his senior speech and got a standing ovation for his courage.
I am the girl who kisses her girlfriend on the sidewalk and laughs at those who glare.
We are the couple who planned and studied and got a damn good lawyer and BEAT the state that wanted to take our child away.
We are the ones who took martial arts classes and carry pepper spray and are just too dangerous to gay bash.
I am the transgender person who uses the bathroom that suits me, and demands that any complaining staff explain their complaint to my face in front of the entire restaurant--and shares with my other trans friends which restaurants don't raise a stink.
I am the mother who told her lesbian daughter to invite her girlfriend over for dinner.
I am the father who punished his son for calling you a ->-bleeped-<-.
I am the preacher who told my congregation that love, not hate, is the definition of a true follower of God.
I am the girl who did not learn the meaning of "homosexual" until high school but never thought to question why two men might be kissing.
I am the woman who argues (quite loudly and vehemently) with the bigots who insist that you do not have the right to marry or raise children.
We are the high school class who agrees, unanimously, along with our teacher, that love should be all that matters.
If you agree, repost this. Do it. You don't have to be afraid. You can handle it. You're stronger than you think
i'm the lesbian transsexual [whose girlfriend is also a MTF]
Quotewho argues (quite loudly and vehemently) with the bigots who insist that
people like you don' have the right to be part of the [lesbian] or any other community.
i'm smiling now : )
It's sad but true. As a member of a minority group, I know it all too well. Only thing I do is live my life and pray that people's perceptions will change.
Gennee
:(
I am the woman who will transition in a public school setting.
I am the woman that my colleagues complain about to the Superintendant for having too much of a feminine appearance while presenting as male.
I am the woman who, when the time comes, will die with her eyes wide open. (See you in Sto-Vo-Kor, Blaire!{www.startrek-voyager.info/klingon.html})
I am the woman who will not surrender.
Chaunte
"We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."
Winston Churchill
Chaunte-stated like a true tropper!
hugs
Ricki :-*
peniwhenthierattachedtomeophobia?
Hey Tink... (oh-Hello there-how was your time away? :-*)
QuoteI am the TS woman who is now "wanted" by the same boys that one day made her life a living hell.
do not give e'm what they want either!
lol
Ricki
Quote from: Ricki on January 19, 2007, 08:26:07 PM
Hey Tink... (oh-Hello there-how was your time away? :-*)
QuoteI am the TS woman who is now "wanted" by the same boys that one day made her life a living hell.
do not give e'm what they want either!
lol
Ricki
Who said I was going to? >:D Everything went great! :), thank you for your concern, Ricki. I did miss your sense of humor though, for the nights can get really long and quiet there....but it is over now... ;)
tinkerbell :icon_chick: