I am not transgender. And, perhaps like some who read Scottie’s blog, there are times when I wonder why I am reading so much about transgender and non-binary issues, since they don’t really effect me. I’m simply me, an overweight white guy who has struggled with his orientation and confidence. Interestingly enough, I’m – as written – not Hispanic. I was born in the USA, so why should I care about some of the other posts Scottie shows on his blog about ICE/Immigration? I think you know where I am going with this.
On the first day of tRump’s occupation, he signed an executive order that the United States would no longer recognize anything but born male/born female as a gender to the applause of a disappointingly large number of people. With the literal stroke of a pen, a person’s identity was made to be unrecognized by their very own government.
And, just as he has chosen to remove men and women from our communities without the right of Habeas Corpus, one of the very principles our country was founded upon, who will be next to learn they are a non-person and suddenly unworthy of liberty? Will it be me, a struggling fat white guy who doesn’t conform to the cis ideal? Will it be when I become old and can no longer work? Will it be because I don’t agree with the Maga mantra? What will I have to fake to be still acceptable to the powers?
I’d like to paraphrase and steal another’s words here:
The Declaration of Independence identified “the pursuit of happiness” as one of our unalienable rights, along with life and liberty… Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton (spoke about what) happiness meant in their lives, how they understood the pursuit of happiness as a quest for being good, not feeling good—the pursuit of lifelong virtue, not short-term pleasure. Among those virtues were the habits of industry, temperance, moderation, and sincerity, which the Founders viewed as part of a daily struggle for self-improvement, character development, and calm self-mastery. They believed that political self-government required personal self-government.
Now this is arguable, but I want to believe it. I want to believe and agree that the creation of this country was about more than the pursuit of power, but about the pursuit of happiness, of completion, of understanding and identity. I believe that the creation of this country was to be about self-determination and self-actualization, not conformity to some distorted and corrupted image of a diseased head of state.
It is for this reason that I embrace the rights and honor of those who are transgender, non-binary, or any who are seeking to understand that person in the mirror. In fact, I see it as a fundamental aspect of being an American that we accept those who are in the journey of self. Further, just as Jesus Christ is reported to exhort us to welcome the stranger – because it is only by befriending those different from whoever I am that I can hope to one day fully understand Randy.
I welcome respectful comments and even disagreements to this post. hugs.
Scottie's Playtime 
Hi. Randy this is wonderful and grand. I agree with you. You wrote: In fact, I see it as a fundamental aspect of being an American that we accept those who are in the journey of self. Further, just as Jesus Christ is reported to exhort us to welcome the stranger – because it is only by befriending those different from whoever I am that I can hope to one day fully understand Randy.
The idea of rights is that if it harms no one else personally then it should be allowed as a right. I have the right to swing my arm until it reaches the point of your nose, then I lose the right. But far too many people don’t want others to have happiness or expression different from their own happiness or expression. The local news last night had a report that a man was in trouble in his neighborhood because of his Christmas display. The display was skeletons dressed up in holiday apparel doing things like running a coffee stand. Fun stuff. Yet two of the locals went to the town to try to get the display taken down. Why you ask? It offended their Christian Christmas. These two white people felt that any loss of the privilege of the status of their religion during a secular holiday was a denial of their personal rights. Even though no harm was being caused to them.
This is the same people trying to outlaw any change in the public society that makes their views less enforced. They want the public square to be filled and display only them and their views, no one else should have the same rights they do. Why? Is it to make themselves comfortable? Is it to honor their god? Or is the idea of being different just too much for them to conceive of. What ever they must not be allowed to do what Russia and other oppressive countries have done and get their way of erasing people’s very existence. That is why I a gay cis male post so much about the marginalized.
As you wrote why stand up for the others … so when they come for me someone will be there to help stand up for me. Hugs
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi Scottie. Have you ever thought about how the songs we grew up with seem to have gone forgotten on so many of our contemporaries? As I wrote this post I was thinking on John Lennon’s “Imagine”. Are we dreamers? Are we surrounded by those who forgot, or those who never understood the song at all. I mean, we have Nazi’s again!!
I think many of us require someone else to help define identity. The honest mirror is sometimes cruel, telling a person things rather ignored or denied, and to seek to be genuine puts a person out in the cold wind alone. It requires courage, and it’s far easier to hate others rather than allow them to be them while the person in the mirror comes to be loved, lumps and all. In fact, it’s a running joke and insult for some to talk about another person “seeking to find himself”, when it should be admired and assisted. Genuine people are strong in adversity and compassionate in love because they aren’t afraid of the most cruel judge of them all – that dang guy in the mirror. That is a society that I believe we were destined to be.
Hugs, my brother.
randy
LikeLiked by 2 people