I started out hoping to write about scarcity. Specifically I was hoping to write about the scarcity of fairness and equality that to many people think exists, as if we can't be fair to everyone and that it is necessary that some people have to have inferior rights in order for others to feel superior.
I wanted to write about just why that must be so...because I don't think it does.
But I can't get this exchange out of my head:
I'm a transwoman.
I have a rather large adams apple. Am I not a woman in your opinion?
nope.
That was from a woman who thinks she's more deserving of respect than I am, simply because she was born female.
Originally posted at Docudharma
And this came from a gay guy:
I got it
Code Pink has trannie members too so it's not all women.
And people recced that comment. I can only assume that's because they agreed.
So I'm stuck writing something probably only for myself and a very small audience: those who I believe could benefit from reading it will not. Or maybe I should put that this way: those whose reading it would benefit transfolk are unlikely to read it. That is pretty much the nature of intentional ignorance.
Here's a myth that it would be good if we could eliminate:
There are only males and females. |
People have lots of ways they use to identify the difference between boys and girls, men and women. A lot of them are only accurate to a point. Number one on the hit parade of what people claim is chromosomes: XY is male and XX is female. But that ignores reality. Those aren't the only possibilities and they are not universally true. Ilizane Broks was born with XY chromosomes and complete androgen insensitivity syndrome. It amazes me that there are people out there who would claim this young woman (she's now 21) is a man.
It also amazes me that people who have never had a chromosome test think that's how we differentiate sex. But then I've always been at somewhat of a loss to explain the mass hysteria in people who think that it is incumbent upon them to be the authority on other people's sex and gender. I wish someone could explain that to me.
But we live in your world and you only allow men and women. So we are forced to choose. Shouldn't that be our choice and not yours?
Here's a test. Which one is the man and which one is the woman? Loren Cameron on the left is a photographer and author. Carolyn Cossey on the right is a former model and Bond girl (For Your Eyes Only). Loren was assigned to be female at birth. Carolyn was assigned male.
What do your eyes tell you? What does your heart tell you? Please ask yourself why it is your business to accept anything other than what is presented.
Some of us believe that biology is not destiny. Shouldn't we have the freedom of choice to do that? Do not our bodies belong to us?
I beg you to look into your own deep places, be that your heart, your mind, or your soul, and tell me why these people should not be allowed to be the men or women they claim to be.
Just like other people we are sometimes straight, sometimes bi, sometimes gay or lesbian. Just like other people we have lives to live and we deserve to live them as equal humans.
We do not deserve to be massacred, one at a time, because you discover what you can't handle. We do not deserve to be driven to suicide by the treatment we receive from the communities in which we reside. We deserve a chance at life just like you.
There is nothing to fear from us except for the questions that arise in your own minds. We do not deserve to compile lists of those of us who have been murdered, year after bloody year, watching the toll rise, hearing the toll of the bells, paying the toll with our lives for merely existing.
Equality is not a commodity that should be rationed to those you decide are worthy.
Blood on the Edges
Real
We are real people
real women
real men
Our lives are real
real lives
lived by real people
It is not your job
to proclaim
otherwise
You are not
experts on
our existences
It is not your place
to deny our
humanity
--Robyn Elaine Serven
--November 21, 2008 |
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