These little hashtags pepper our lives. These are mine and how they represent me. At least that is how I wanted this book to be. It was to be a book of short articles using a hashtag as inspiration. However, it has grown and changed as I have.
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My knowledge of people who identify as transgender is very limited.
When I was a teenager, I remember my parents hanging out with friends at Embers, a club in Portland, Oregon. Victoria was a stunning Drag Queen who was prettier than most females I know. She just loved to dress up. When she was out of drag, he dressed and identified as a man. So, I really never met anyone I knew growing up that identified as something other than their biological sex.
Currently, I don't have any close friends or family that identify as a trans or non-binary. The only people I know that identify as trans or non-binary are online or what I have seen in entertainment like movies and television shows.
So why do I talk about trans rights if I don't have a horse in this race?
Why do I choose to have characters in my stories that identify as trans or non-binary?
Sorry if I come off as overly pedantic, but Trans Rights is Human Rights. Non-Binary Rights is Human Rights.
I understand the frustration of being misidentified and harassed because I am not living in the social norm box that the culture has created for me. I am a cis-woman and I love being a woman. Even as a child, when I was VERY tomboyish, I still identified as a girl. Even when I chopped my hair like a boy and I did "boy" sports, I was still a girl. I would cringe and correct anyone who misidentified me as a little boy. I was proud to be a girl and to show the boys that I could do anything they could do (BUT I could do it better LOL). When I went into the military, I cut off my long hair so that it wouldn't be a distraction from my goal of succeeding in boot camp. The biggest compliment I got from my company commander was, "Coral, you are one tough cookie." It was perfect. I am a badass woman, but still super sweet... when I choose to be.
But not everyone is so secure in the gender they were born into. If we look at the majority of teenagers, how many do you know that isn't insecure about their bodies or about their emotions? Without a firm social net whether from friends or family, many engage in dangerous behaviors as they seek who they are. So how do you think someone who is questioning their gender is treated?
I have so much respect for someone to come out as transgender or non-binary because it does go against what our current culture identifies as the "social norm." They have to contend with bigotry, hate, and anger from people who do not care to know them first before making those determinations. They are stuck in a world where people are cruel and unforgiving. They feel alone and like people do not understand what they are going through. People judge hard, but we also are our own worst critic.
In a recent Washington Post article, I was shocked to see the following statistics. "Fifty-one percent of transgender male adolescents reported at least one suicide attempt — the highest rate in the study. The second highest was among young people who are nonbinary — those who do not identify exclusively as male or female — at 42 percent, while 30 percent of transgender female adolescents reported attempting suicide" (Stanley-Becker, 2018) The study was released by the American Academy of Pediatrics called Transgender Adolescent Suicide Behavior. Its an interesting study and I linked it below so people can check it out. This is NOT okay. I don't want to live in a world that supports this and shrugs their collective shoulders saying "Oh Well. I guess that's natural selection."
The US Constitution speaks about the right to pursue happiness. Ensuring others around me is identified as they wish to be is one way I can help them find their happiness. I will continue to stand up against legislation that discriminates against them. I will continue to have complex trans and non-binary characters in my stories because I want to help normalize them into our whitewashed binary culture to create a social culture that more closely represents the diverse world we live in. They are human; they deserve the ability to pursue the things that make them happy. If that means joining the military, going to school, education, starting a business, let them live their lives.
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To those that identify as Nonbinary or Trans:
We create the world we want to live in. You are welcome in mine.
You are worthy of life.
You are beautiful even with those perceived flaws you think you have.
Kintsugi (金継ぎ, "golden joinery"), also known as Kintsukuroi (金繕い, "golden repair"), is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. When pottery is broken, instead of the shards being tossed away, each piece painstakingly put back together with resin and metal. The pottery becomes a new stunning creation so unique because of the scars. They aren't hidden. If it breaks, it is not broken, but created into a different piece of art made more beautiful.
Stanley-Becker, I. (2018). "More than half of transgender male adolescents attempt suicide, study says" The Washington Post. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/09/14/more-than-half-of-transgender-male-adolescents-attempt-suicide-study-says/?utm_term=.ea6a6ec0d0c0
Toomey, R et al. 2018. "Transgender Adolescent Suicide Behavior" the American Academy of Pediatrics. VOLUME 142 / ISSUE 4 doi: 10.1542/peds.2017-4218 Retrieved from: http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/142/4/e20174218
