(a thought for our trans family in the US & wherever it resonates)
38 now, trans bish (she/her), came out and began transition at 28 after wrestling with the thought for three years having first found out trans people existed at 25 (because those were the times). .. This wave feels much more hostile. I am not denying that. And this thought here is for those who may be fortunate enough to still feel relatively safe in their specific communities and states.
I've been in a dread-worry state for long enough to feel pretty miserable right now. And I'm in a state that I feel will at least put up some of a fight defending our legal rights!
But I started to feel so hopeless that I finally realized something (a very light-in-the-darkness kind of thought); a person becomes harder to erase when more people know and appreciate them for who they are. One of the best ways to do that is to volunteer.
Most of the people so willing to hate us do so so readily because they don't actually know any of us.
So I'm getting signed up to help cook one night a week at the local (likely very-christian) community kitchen cuz that's in my field of work (although I've been struggling to find decent work in this town). That'll be a few weeks before it gets going due to schedules, but I'll add a follow up here eventually if there seems to be an interest.
I did so to combat the overwhelming depression wave that's been otherwise rather wrecking me.
And to do a small bit of good, on purpose, regularly, and with a small team of people who'd probably otherwise never meet an actual trans person.
Most of those people will then go on to begin to take pause when they hear the bigoted dogmas I don't need to repeat for example. Some of them may even speak up on our behalf. That then later later becomes one of their friends going, "Now Gweneth, don't you know someone who's transgendered?" (mirroring their unintentional misused terms).
The point is this kind of work ripples outward in a very good way, and I encourage all of us who feel capable and safe to add a little extra intentional positive-interactivity with your communities wherever you feel comfortable.
Part of the "battle" against being othered is becoming known. So for those of us who are where it feels safe to, for those of us who choose to: may the light we create make waves to slow and stop this ignorant madness.
I'll do my best, anyway. And thank you to each and every one of us who continues to live on if at times for nothing else but spite.
We the trans are the hope-embodied. love.this.for.us.
-atranssister,
o/
((update coming when I get to it))
p.s. felt zen, may delete later