Skip to main content

#TRANSLIVESMATTER


 I have existed in a part of the world where there was need for a Queer People of Color community. This community was my safe space in downtown Winnipeg a few Saturdays a month when we would meet for laughter, drinks and sharing. Honestly (and I am ashamed to admit), the trans degrading remarks made on Winnipeg’s radio station on the 16th would have not hit me as hard from anywhere else.  

I am a queer African woman with almost no authority on transgender issues. Therefore, I write this article for Miraj. Miraj and I met on Facebook. At that time, I was searching for a community of people like me and I found a Ugandan raised Trinidadian. We talked for a week and decided to meet up for a hookah session and some stories. Our friendship had already gained foundation when she told me her assigned gender at birth had been male. The reality of trans lives had never been as clear to me as at that moment.

At that moment, I understood why she waited until nobody was looking to use a public restroom. I understood why outdoor spaces were anxiety triggers for her. I understood the weekly trips to the Klinic and I finally understood why my assurance that she was beautiful, loved and appreciated everyday was important to her. The T in LGBTQ+ meant more to me since that day. it was her pain I felt when I saw the banners on the London march organized by ‘lesbians’ demanding that transgender persons not claim the lesbian sexual identity and the news that Monday afternoon. This was followed by a Facebook post forwarded to me of a lesbian identifying user ranting about reserving their right not to respect transgender persons.

This is my stand: Transgender persons are valid. Their lives matter. I believe that their process is valid. I believe that they are part of my community. I believe that their rights to privacy, decency, life, and recognition should be accorded to them. I believe that the T is relevant. I am sending a pulse of love to all the transgender persons at whatever stages of their transitions, at whatever stage of coming out, in whatever part of the world, in whatever space they take up or not take up. I send a pulse of encouragement, acceptance, and recognition. From my queer heart to yours.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

COITUS INTERRUPTUS

The world was blown away by a fem positive revolution around 2010/11.My little world at the time was taken by storm by Oprah and Ellen. I decided i had found the word i was looking for. To hear an echo of what was my story from a woman of color and a queer woman both from the across the globe inspired me. I made the mistake of speaking the word to my father. It was at a family dinner, he had just served himself the lion share(oh the African culture) and was settling comfortably into his seat.I turned to my mother and told her we had learnt about rape at school that day. My mother did not miss a beat, she said " That is not table conversation." The very next day and every day after that there was a cold knife on my neck when he came to take me. I realize that I had been captivated by the success stories. I had looked past the process of coming to terms. I tried again, when i met my first girlfriend five years ago, and this time I was ready for the hurt, confusion, guilt and...
Post a Comment
Read more

#BFF GOALS

My best friend was coming out to me, in the dead of the night, whispering between the upper bunk beds of oh so adventurous high school. I was alert to the details of her new awakened feelings for a woman, even though I had not declared my own sexuality to her yet. My lover and I were still a secret, even to ourselves. At that moment, when she began telling me, I knew I wanted to stand with her, for her. When she began, I knew I was going to be one of those woke best friends, that was when she began.  Then she elaborated these feelings. There had been an object of her burning desire, ‘your new friend,’ she said, ‘I think I want your new friend.’ Maybe at that point, if the lights to our overcrowded dorm had been on, she would have noticed the despair that sketched itself across my face. Maybe, she would have read the words of Don’t you Dare in my eyes and stopped there. Maybe she would have seen how I had to ball up my fists to keep the words in. Maybe she would have reali...
Post a Comment
Read more

FOR I HAD SINNED

"As every other person." This was a default answer to a question I had been asked countless times in high school: How do you see B? But now i was sitting with her beside me in the counsellor's office, answering a different question: What does she make you feel? The truth is I felt fleeting things, twisted, raw, primitive, soul snatching, heart squeezing, breathtaking, nail biting, toe curling things. I felt world ending, cupid inspired, sex driven, hot rising things for this one woman but i was not ready to say it out loud, I was not ready to hear it bounce from my lips to my ears. I could not bring myself to tell anyone else that every breathe this beautiful human drew was another swell of love within me. I was not prepared to be dumbfounded by the very thought of confessing that this one human held together my very sanity. I was not ready to feel the pangs of emotion that came with such utterance of vulnerability. I was not fit for the battle that lay within a simpl...
Post a Comment
Read more