TDOR
Imagine a world where you live in fear. Imagine a world where you don’t know what is waiting around the corner, where friends become enemies, where loves are in danger and your family is torn apart. Imagine a world where there are people who would see you dead for a life that was given to you at birth. These may sound like scenes from a tragic movie. These are real people; real lives and the scenarios are very real. Thousands of people fear this life and many more are living it. A life in darkness, the life of someone who is transgendered.
Transgenderism is a term used to describe how an individual’s gender identity does not match the biological sex of the individual. Those who are diagnosed as transgendered are born with a condition called gender dysphoria. Gender dysphoria is a medical term to describe an individual’s severe discomfort with their biological sex. No one really knows what causes people to be born transgendered or why it happens. Some believe it to be a biological issue, whereas others believe it to be psychological, either way, transgendered people exist and many live in fear of being discovered.
The transgender community is a tight knit community; those who are in it consider each other ‘brothers’ and ‘sisters’. They share experiences and a bond that others don’t understand. The attitude of many in the transgender community is one for all and all for one. If one member of the community is insulted, you insult the rest of us. Almost daily trans people can hear comments such as “tranny”, “cock in a frock” etc. People believe it is acceptable to discriminate against an already vulnerable community.
Every year, on November 20th, those who are a part of the transgender community and supporters of the acceptances of trans people, light a candle to pay respect to the trans people who have died in the past year. This day is known as Transgender Day Of Remembrance (TDOR). It is a well known statistic that 1 in 3 trans people die a year, either through suicide or murder. Many of the names read out at the TDOR events have been brutally murdered by those who discover they are transgendered. A majority of these murders happen to young trans women who have had their original genitalia mutilated before their death. Children as young as ten have been found dead because of being transgendered. This may be uncomfortable to read, however the harsh fact is that people continue to murder out of pure hate and on the basis that someone is transgendered. Murdering those who took the steps to be who they are.
The misconceptions you hear about transgendered people are often false. Transgendered people are not cross-dressers, nor are they transvestites. Trans women are not burly men in a frock and wig and trans men are not butch women who enjoy wearing men’s clothes. You can’t tell who is transgendered by stereotypes. Many trans people don’t look like the stereotypical “tranny” and are simply trying to live the life that has been thrown at them the best they can. You can rarely tell if someone is trans unless you directly as and even then it is wrong to make an assumption.
There are very few organisations and charities that provide adequate support for young trans people. Many LGB (lesbian, gay and bisexual) organisations add the T as a token and provide little or no support for trans people. Others go to the extent of completely ignoring the existence of transgendered people altogether. One of the biggest organisations for LGBT rights and support, Stonewall, is guilty of this.
Stonewall, (whose name derived from the famous Stonewall Riots, where the gay and transgender community fought alongside each other, this led to the progression of gay rights and the first pride marches) are one of the largest LGB charities/organisations in the UK. The government provides funding to LGBT charities and organisations, Stonewall, being a sizeable charity gets a large chunk of this funding. The hypocrisy of Stonewall is that the organisation refuses to acknowledge the community that helped push forward gay rights and who took part in the riots that Stonewall named themselves after.
Many transgendered activists have begun to set up their own support networks and charitable groups to provide the support for young trans people that isn’t provided elsewhere. The activists spend a lot of time protesting against the transphobic attitudes of organisations that represent queer young people.
I ask you, open your eyes and your hearts. Stop seeing the world in black and white and see the grey that exists instead that many people live in. Just like how sexuality and gender is fluid and diverse so should society be. Society should be able to flow and keep up with the expanding grey.
Guest post by Karl Walker