The Transgender Day of Remembrance is a day set aside to honor those in our community who have been the victim of violence. This day was begun in 1999 to commemorate the unsolved murder of Rita Hester of Boston, MA, who died of multiple stab wounds in 1998. There are ceremonies in various cities around the world. She was not the first, nor was she the last.
Rev. Haggard, pastor of New Life Evangelical Church has long crusaded against gay rights. Earlier this month, Rev.Haggard was forced to resign his position after being accused of engaging in the very activity he fought against.
What do these two disparate stories have in common? I believe there a number of things.
At whatever point on the GLBT spectrum one identifies, we know it is not a matter of choice. No rational human being would choose a life often filled with guilt and ostracism.
Human beings are too often conditioned to deny acceptance of that which they do not understand, what they perceive as ‘different’ from themselves or what they themselves fear becoming. I see this in Rev. Haggard. This man literally fought himself. Here is a man with so much to give. His life is now in shambles. He did not choose to be gay, but he was taught to loathe the thought of anyone being gay.
I believe this early conditioning to be the root cause of much of the violence not only against the GLBT community, but against those whose ethnicity or religious belief is perceived as a different. Thankfully, most of us have never been subjected to physical abuse. However, many have been subjected to emotional trauma. Most in the transgender community know the feeling of having lived in fear of our true selves being discovered. Many know the difficulity in simply living a normal life.
Even though our bodies may have not been battered, we know the pain of a battered soul. Thankfully, many uf us know the joy of a healed soul. The healing may have not come easily, nor without a price, but the end result is worth the journey.
If a person desires transition, he or she must be prepared to lose everythng....family, friends, career and perhaps more. It is illogical that anyone, anyplace would be persecuted simply for being who they are, but it is reality.
The fundamental issue is that of human dignity. Whether a person is gay, straight, black, white or TG/TS, if the rights of one are denied or threatened, the rights of all are threatened. As we observed The Transgender Day of Remembrance this year, I beieve we were not only honoring our dead, we were honoring the pioneers who were willing to sacrifice everything for the basic human right to be who they were. They left some broad shoulders for us to stand upon. The least we can do is to honor them by 'paying it forward'. We owe it to the world and to ourselves..