To live as myself

19 November 2010

To live as myself…
Tomorrow is the National Transgender Day of Remembrance. I just read (to myself) the over 129 names of Transgender people (or their allies if killed with or while supporting Transgender issues). I read a brief statement of a young man in which he discussed his difficulties in gender changing while at a women’s college and in trying to travel and get a job when his “official documents” indicate one gender and he presents as a different one.

To live as myself…
I was fairly lucky in birth: white, Anglo-Saxon even (if the “Anglos” and “Saxons” accept Irish as human yet), working class. I am a woman born into a female body. I always had food and my parents always had a home for me while I was growing up in Southern California. Yes, my options may have been broader had my parents raised me to value money differently or pushed me into a “better” college, or even if I had been genetically able to be a tall man. So although the circumstances of my birth could have been more auspicious, overall, I have had a better chance at life than most of the rest of the world.

To live as myself…
One of the immediate things that caught my attention in reading the list of Transgender people/Allies who died in the past 364 days was how many died in Brazil. Almost every month, at least half of those murdered were killed in Brazil. In looking at the CIA’s website of information about Brazil, it compares in many ways with the USA. Most people claim a form of protestant or Roman Catholic religious preference, the top 2 consumers of cocaine. Brazil is the leading economic power in South America, and USA claims to be the leading economic power in North America. Nothing stands out to me as a reason for the higher transgender murder rate. (Not that there should be a reason to kill transgender people at all.)

To live as myself…
I understand that living as one’s self is a privilege of being a member of the dominant culture. When people ask me why I work for LGBT justice, I tell them, “Because I can and I must.” When I read these 179 names (think about it, one transgender person or ally was murdered every other day), I am glad that I was born who I am and that I can live as myself, without the fear that I will be murdered for my gender identity.

To live with myself…
I grieve for those whose lives ended brutally early, because of their transgender identity or their support for transgender people or because someone thought they exhibited signs of a “different” gender. To live with myself, I have to work for more and better justice. To quote Gustavo Gutierrez, “Without justice, there can be no peace.” I urge you to take a moment (or three, they’re free after all) to consider these 179 people, their families and friends and friends of friends. Take a breath and wipe your tears away. Now, think, “What must I do to live with myself?”