Transgender Equality And Homelessness: "Lost And Forgotten In The Larger Reality"

by Michael Talon on March 10, 2012

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/transgender-equality-and-homelessness-lost-and-forgotten-in-the-larger-reality/discrimination/2012/03/10/35811

"We are lost and forgotten in the larger reality," said Katie. "We don't matter, not enough to change what brings us here."

Katie was sitting across from me at a local Caribou Coffee outside Metro Center station in Washington, D.C. We talked for a little about where we both were from, with me telling her about my growing up experience as a Jehovah's Witness in small northern Ontario towns, and the things my father had done to make sure I would turn out straight and the conversion therapy I had endured. This seemed to allow her the ability to open up and realize that I somewhat understood a very small amount of the issues she had faced and wanted to listen.

"I was eight years old when I knew I was different," Katie told me. "I wasn't playing with the other kids the same way and was often being told that I was an abomination, sick, wrong. My parents were religious to a fault and always told me that I had to bring myself closer to God and ask for his grace."