TG Advocate Motivation?

As yours truly continues her losing battle vs. one of the coldest winters known to humanity, I decided to spent the early hours today watching some very interesting YouTube videos about how transgendered people like myself are represented in the media. The It Gets Better program (www.itgetsbetter.org) had a few videos via Google explaining the situation. One of those people I have followed is MMA fighter Fallon Fox, who had a link to this conference on her facebook page. Along side Ms. Fox was Kye Allums, a  transman who made his announcement while playing women's college basketball at George Washington University. I sent Fallon a message about the struggles that she has experienced in the rugged, no-holds barred world of MMA. OK, while it would be wonderful joy to meet TG people like these who have made a name for themselves face-to-face, I have realized that I have begun a strong interest in becoming an advocate for TransGender rights.

There is this YouTube video I saw this chilly morning about a young girl named Jazz (surname not given), age 11, who has long hair and braces, dreams about mermaids, plays soccer,  practices ballet...and has the plumbing of a boy. She was diagnosed as having gender disorder by age 5. You can bet there has been some controversy why this person lives as the opposite gender. Despite that nonconformity, her family has accepted her...and has been her shield against any public naysayers. Jazz has spunk. And a family that stands behind her.  Maybe she'll get her wish and go on estrogen shots, testosterone blockers...and gender reassignment surgery to become the woman she wants to be. However, what if Jazz were of another race, and her family didn't have the financial backing to help cover the doctor visits and hormone shots like this one did? Jazz may have had to fend for herself, or worse, end her life abruptly before it had a chance to flourish. That's the sad reality of some transkids of Jazz' age. Too many families have either sought counseling, prayer from the church, or flat out disowned their children if they had signs of being gay or having a gender disorder. Maybe the same thing happens when their kids grow up. Personally, my folks stopped giving a damn about me when I skedaddled from my dad's house one July evening in 1999. (Read my past family blogs for more illustration.)

I posted a question on facebook last week about what do I have to do become a TG advocate/activist. I do have a host of friends there that are transgendered, though only part-time. One person told me just saying the term "transgender" itself is an insult to the community. Why would I want to insult a group that I am becoming more familiar with everyday? On the It Gets Better video, it was mentioned that about 80% or so don't even know anyone that fits that category. Why is that? Seems like the only time everybody sees people like us is on TV tabloid shows like Jerry Springer & Maury, gleefully exploiting their cause like a traveling circus sideshow. There is more to us than just "drag performers". They aren't "freaks of nature", either.  I also asked our local chapter of PFLAG about this. The response that I got was the same one given to me from some fellow transgendered people: Get out there and be yourself. Don't sugar-coat anything about yourself and "keep it real" to people who don't have a clue why one person changes his/her gender, even if for a little while. 

Katie Couric recently had on her soon-to-be cancelled talk show two of the more prominent transpeople out there: a Victoria's Secret model ( whose name I don't remember) who was booted off due to (surprise!) her gender, then came back by popular demand; and Laverne Cox, the trans-activist/actress currently seen on the hit Netflix series Orange is The New Black. This wasn't Cox's first time on the rodeo media when it comes to being a trans-activist. Just like a lot of the curiosity-craved media, Courier wanted to ask both women about.....the plumbing. Kinda like "here we go again" for Cox and V.S. Those two knew their body was their business, and let Courier know they would not be chastised by confused critics. They are positive examples of trans people that people in the outside world need to see. And the list is growing...

Cox is also working on a documentary on CeCe McDonald, the Minnesota transwoman that defended herself and her friends from a group of racist, anti-LGBT supremacists. CeCe stabbed one of the main culprits in self-defense, killing him in the process. Despite overwhelming evidence which proves it, CeCe was forced to plead guilty for manslaughter and eventually spent 19 months in a men's prison. Cox got to interview CeCe while there last year. Happily, Ms. Cox was also among the crowd that greeted her upon her release a few weeks ago. While this was kept out of the main new stories, MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry reported on this story, granting CeCe her first interview since being released. What I can take from this is quite simple: Prison does suck, even worse for transpeople. I spent Christmas 2011 for non-payment on a traffic ticket in a jail cell with 12 other guys....wearing glitter-painted fingernails. I was lucky no one assaulted me then. CeCe McDonald did not let the ever-so empty doldrums that prison can do to people get to her. She was very brave, while her friends on the outside routinely kept up the fight not only for her  early release, but for justice for TG folks everywhere. Ms. Cox was aside Harris-Perry for that special interview (which I missed live because I was in church. Saw it all online).

I can't say if my blogs will help inspire me in becoming the next Janet Mock. Whatever is inside my head gets written on pages like these. Since discovering my feminine side in 1998, my eyes have been opened to a lot of things that I never paid attention prior to coming out. Makeup. Hair. Wardrobe. Sisterhood (in my case). Pride. Faith. May this intervention of me being an advocate for transgendered right never end!