Transgender Awareness Week
This is Transgender Awareness Week, you Beautiful Sinners!
I am excited to celebrate with my friends, followers, fans and future friends/lovers who identify as transgender. I celebrate you all everyday. I see you as what you are - human - just like the rest of us. We all know by now that I don’t see gender labels, I see people. I stand with you, I honor you, I embrace you, I accept you, I love you. I will always fight the fight with you with nothing but love and compassion. I will always stand with you. Your opinions matter, your rights matter. You matter to me and to so many others.
I am thrilled with the recent victory in Massachusetts being the first state to uphold transgender protections at the ballot box last week. Again, disheartened that the community is having to be considered on a voter’s ballot and not automatically seen as humans with rights as so many others are without question, but elated to see the success! I am equally as elated to see so many LGBTQ members now finding seats and offices well deserved, our votes matter, Sinners! Let’s keep making those loving changes!
The purpose of Transgender Awareness Week is to help those that are unclear, to understand transgender and gender non-conforming people as well as the issues associated with their journeys and transformations. Last week, we saw in the polls only a small fraction of these issues. I have written blogs about the bullying and rise in suicides in LGBTQ people, it is no secret that the community falls victim to such violence and so many unnecessary hate crimes. People do not understand and therefore they judge when a difference or something or someone “out of the norm” is discovered. So often, I hear from transgender people who had no resources when they were younger. They had no words to describe how they felt or what they were. Feeling so empty and alone and outcast leads to severe anxiety and depression. While reading a story of a transgender youth, it hit me hard when I read, “The bottom line is that trans youth need to be able to see themselves. They need the resources to understand how they feel, explore their identities, and find others like them. Trans youth should not grow up believing that they are sick or broken or alone. Transgender Awareness Week is a vital platform for jump-starting the type of education and change that will make it possible for transgender and gender nonconforming people to find the resources and support that they need.”
I couldn’t agree more. It is a responsibility I am willing and honored to take on. If you need resources, have questions, need support, please contact me. I am happy to provide you with links to the resources you need. Parents of “normal gender” children should be teaching their children that there are people who are transgender and what that means and that they are no different, they should not be judged, bullied, shamed, beaten, etc. I have also written about what a lack our sexual education programs schools currently have. If we leave out people of the LGBTQ communities, hoping they will just go away, or be “normal” we are fueling the fire for disaster and continued hate.
Together, we can literally save lives. If you are suffering, take a leap of faith in trusting that you don't have to. There are others like me who are here to only love you. We stand ready to be there for you when you're ready.
Your Ally in the Garden and everywhere else,
