Happy Halloween! There’s a lot to be scared about, but nothing spookier than #HIVStigma. 🎃💀👻 #EndStigma #happyhalloween2018🎃👻
ameera, wisconsin, muslim youth leadership councilmember (she/her)
never enough.
Not masculine enough for my family or for what society thinks I should be,
not feminine enough for how a faggot or tranny is usually seen,
not talented enough to be a master of one trade,
not skilled in enough to be a jack of all,
not Muslim or religious enough to feel at home in a masjid,
not queer enough to feel at home with gays,
not quiet enough to enjoy the company of nerds,
not talkative enough to be a socialite,
not skinny enough,
not active enough,
not cultured enough,
not selfless enough,
not selfish enough,
not thoughtful enough,
not practical enough,
not thorough enough,
not nice enough,
not tough enough,
not considerate enough,
not successful enough,
not rich enough,
Not white enough,
not black enough,
Never good enough. never happy.
Never able to please others, never able to please ourselves.
Never good enough.
We are the misfits. And we are ok with ourselves.
We are ok.
We are perfect not despite, but because of our imperfections.
We are. Never enough.
And that means we are enough.
“Activists in the L.G.B.T. community mobilized a fast and fierce campaign that included a protest outside of the White House on Monday to say transgender people cannot be expunged from society, in response to an unreleased Trump administration memo that proposes a strict definition of gender based on a person’s genitalia at birth.
The existence of the draft memo, the administration’s latest effort to roll back the recognition and protection of transgender people under federal civil rights law, was reported by The New York Times on Sunday morning.
Within hours on Sunday, the hashtag #WontBeErased circulated on social media. By Sunday evening, a rally for transgender rights took place in New York; another took place on Monday in Washington.
Ms. Keisling said she and her staff woke up on Sunday to the news of the memo and quickly planned a response. The hashtag #WontBeErased felt appropriate to them. “What this feels like to transgender people is trying to make us invisible, trying to say that we don’t exist, trying to say that we are nothing,” she said.
The #WontBeErased hashtag took off on social media, as people posted photos of themselves or family members to show the faces of transgender people — who, they noted, would continue to exist regardless of the government’s definition of gender.
The American public is divided over whether it is possible for a person’s gender to differ from the sex they were assigned at birth, according to a Pew Research Center survey published last year, amid debates over which public bathrooms transgender people should use.
It said the divide was evident along political lines, with 80 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents saying that whether someone is a man or a woman is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth. About 64 percent of Democrats or those who hold their views say a person’s gender can be different from the sex they were assigned at birth.”
Let’s show them we exist!! #WontBeErased
AlecZander, Ohio
I #WontBeErased. As an 18 year old, non-binary, queer person of color, I REFUSE to be told that in order to avoid harassment, I should conform to the sex stereotypes of America today. I refuse to be told that in order for my government to acknowledge my existence, I must be a cisgender, straight, white american. I will not erase my own identity by conforming. We will not erase our identities by conforming. The transgender community is over 1.4 million people strong and we will not simply disappear just because the Trump Administration wants to define us out of existence.
The Trump Administration’s proposal for redefining ‘gender’ is blatantly transphobic. The proposed definition of gender results in the erasure of transgender and gender-nonconforming people in Title IX’s anti-discriminatory law. This definition would define sex as unchangeable. This proposition would require that the gender of a person be determined by the genitals that a person is born with. If this proposed definition is adopted, it allows the federal government to ignore all issues relating to transgender discrimination under Title IX. When questioned about cases in which transgender students faced discrimination in school, the Education Department’s office for Civil Rights stated that they will continue to investigate cases as “unwelcome conduct based on a student’s sex” or “harassing conduct based on a student’s failure to conform to sex stereotypes.” rather than simply investigating them as what they are, transgender discrimination cases. This proves to the transgender community that our government not only wants to erase our existence, but expects us to conform to stereotypes that our society has placed on us.
Mikal Woods, Philadelphia
Before I became this big ray of awesomeness
I was a child who was passed around different foster homes since I was 5, faced countless adoption rejections and endured many years of verbal abuse and physical abuse.
.
I used to envy folks with family; now I don’t even know how to react to the family thing most of the time.
.
This is one of 2 pics that I know that’s still around from when I was a kid. (I’m just seeing this one today).
.
I spent majority of my teen years in a group home and many of those years I spent every Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving, in my room wondering why can’t I go home.
.
I’ve met awesome folks along the way. I’ve made major progress from the young me. I’ve seen folks come and go so much I’m used to it .
.
This is me this is my truth and I’m now the hero that little Mikal always needed when he was a kid and didn’t have one.
