November 20th is Transgender Day of Remembrance. Looking at the website the number of murders of transgender people is staggering. What is so threatening about a transgender person that anyone feels they don’t deserve to live. And that they deserve to die is such violent ways. It is frightening and heartbreaking.
I understand why moms of transgender kids are so fearful. We tend to fear what we don’t know. People who have never known anyone who is transgender base their thoughts and feelings on their own fears and on what they’ve heard and read. What I know is that the transgender people I’ve met and known are no different from you and me. They have the same dreams, they want the same things. They are all races and religions, from all cultures.
I pray that as more and more people live openly as transgender, there will be less and less fear and misunderstanding. People find it hard to understand; some people condemn it. I don’t find it so hard to understand when I think about me. I was born female. I always knew I was girl. I never wanted to be anything else. I identify as female and I present as female.
For one who is transgender, they were born with the genitals of one gender but identify as the other gender. Just like me, they always knew what their gender was. They always felt like the gender they identify as. It doesn’t matter what’s between their legs. They know what’s in their heart and how they feel – just like I do and you do.
My prayer is that one day we will no longer need an annual Transgender Day of Remembrance. That day can’t come soon enough.
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