Transgendered persons get to deal with a lot of fun issues in life. Very few people understand us, and perhaps only a few more are willing to accept our right to be ourselves. We face discrimination in housing, employment, health care...the list goes on and on. But those things pale next to our risk of dying because of who we are. Far too many 'normals' can't restrict themselves from being disgusted by our lives and have to take action, that action usually involving violence intended, presumably, to demonstrate their own masculinity.
The Transgender Day of Remembrance is a day taken to remember the victims of anti-trans violence and to highlight the problems transgendered people face in simply trying to live their lives. I'm not sure just how more likely transgender people are to face violence than non-transgender people, but while I am always skeptical of numbers provided by any advocacy group, it seems indisputable to me that men and women who don't meet society's narrow vision of gender norms are far more likely to face physical violence. People, as a rule, don't like hearing that gender and sexuality exist along a continuum, I suspect because that's an issue that hits too close to home for them. And so, as humans are wont to do, they lash out at whatever makes them uncomfortable.
I'm not asking people to understand me. I'm not even asking them not to feel uncomfortable around me. I'm different, and I understand that different makes people uncomfortable. All I'm asking is that people not physically injure me because of it. That doesn't really seem like too much to ask.
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