Every time I hear of violence and brutality being leveled against our trans brothers and sisters, it stings my heart and stirs me to fiery rage. Am I to now break something, beat somebody or roar my wrath from the peak of Stone Mountain? What good would that do? What change would that bring? When it happens agains, which it will, am I to contort my face into the ugly sadness and disappointment of righteous indignation or have a conniption so intense as to snap blood vessels and die a stroke victim? I will not. In the words of one strong Transwoman I knew in Baltimore, "I will not run my mascara or put hard lines on my beautiful face over this." Do what you will with your own anger, but I choose do something else with mine. My silence has been the pause I need to choose another way, and not that of indifference or apathy.
So what now? Do we pretend as if the latest assault never happened, because of our inability to deal with the problem? Or are we to lace up combat boots and stomp the latest perpetrator into the gutter in the spirit of Stonewall, to make an example of those who dare to touch one of our own? Or are we to wait until January for the earliest opportunity to harass our state legislators for greater protections under state law? Or are we to trouble the mayor once more who is currently tangled with responding to the previous incident of trans violence? I would like to offer another way, and tell my trans brothers and sisters that the answer and the solution lies within you. How dare I advocate the acceptance of responsibility upon those who are being victimized? Before you come for my wig, contemplate on this truth, that if those who perpetrate violence, humiliation, and disrespect toward our trans family knew better, they would do better. This is not to excuse their most reprehensible actions, but to consider that no one, not me, not you, or anyone is capable of acting beyond the state of consciousness and awareness than the one we currently sit in. If they did, they would immediately acknowledge that what they do to you and to others, they do to themselves. It impossible to send forth any energy, positive or negative and not have it come back home threefold. Such is the Gospel Truth. Karma or "The Law of Reciprocity" doesn't care about the justification of the energy, it moves into action the instant the energy is put into motion as lightning comes down to earth the instant the conditions are ripe and nothing may stop it. If we choose to respond with violence and indignant anger at those who do these things, we join in their punishment and we our then twice victimized, which is no part of our duty. It was how Jesus could say, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do."
For me, the sting of anger is no longer a shame for me, nor is it something which needs to control my actions any longer. It serves as a rude awakening to me that something is not right and that a response is crucial, lest the injustice continues and exacerbates. It serves as a spark which moves me into action with decisive passion and clarity, that "AH, HELLL NO!" factor. To that extent, I am good and pissed! But now that I'm burned with anger and ready to act, anger has done its job and it is now time to flex fuels into a more powerful and long-lasting fuel and that is the fuel of LOVE. Like the little explosions which moves the pistons, if it goes beyond that, it blows the whole car up, such is anger which matures into violence if not checked. Both are necessary in their role, but anger is of man and Love is of GOD. With this fuel, we must forgive the initial wrong. It is already done and cannot be recanted. What is now before us, is that if we do not help those who would harm our trans brothers and sisters to know better, it is going to happen again and again just as surely those who are blind and drive are destined to injure themselves, others and property if they are not helped to see.
What do these people need to see, and how do we help them see it? They need to see your humanity which is like their own, your fears, your hopes, your struggles and your strength. We must expose the myth that Trans people are sick freaks of nature with no moral compass, lacking standards of decency or a sense of dignity, and thus more befitting of a circus/carnival act than integral members of our community. There is no need to rebuttal this concept, for when we expose the truth, the lie is then clearly seen for what it is and it embarrasses the good senses of those who believed it. We should not seek pity for the trans experience, for I do not see any of you as victims, nor should you see yourselves this way. Mistreated as you are, I see you as victors and heroes given the burden of helping humanity to understand its gender paradigm which lies within each of us, a mixture and configuration of both masculine and feminine energies. When we learn to harness both, we become some of the most potent spirits on the face of the earth like GOD, who is Transgendered (beyond gender), both mother and father, nurturer-comforter and protector, teacher and disciplinarian, care-taker and provider. Your very experience doesn't allow you to escape the hard struggle of reconciling both in a rigidly gender binary society. That man is separate from woman, and woman is separate from man and that in humanity they are not one and the same is the real distortion you are here to correct with your truth. Because GOD is not one to give you more than you cannot handle, consider yourselves specially "CHOSEN", like Joshua fit for the battle of Jericho. I do not cry for you. I stand up and clap for you!
To those who are not of the Transgender experience, these people need to see that they've got people too, a host of family, friends and community members who support them, appreciate their individuality and lift them up with honor and dignity, and that we will not further tolerate their mistreatment and abuse. They are OURS! Come against them and you come against us all. As for me, I don't get knocked down that easily and I never stay down. I challenge them to try to beat me. Though they may injure my body, I have no cause to fear them. They can try if they may to break me down, but I say it ain't up to them, they'll break themselves against me as I stand in TRUTH and LOVE. They can never conquer my spirit or my strength which comes from GOD, to whom they must answer. If we have no cause to fear them, then we have no cause to hate them. If we have no cause to hate them, then what cause have we not the offer them mercy as they incur the consequential punishment of their own errors? Like Miss Ceelie from The Color Purple uttered in her chilling declaration of independence to her abusive husband, "Everything you've done to me is already done to you. Until you do right by me, everything you even think about is gonna crumble." They hate because they fear. They fear because they do not understand, like those who fear everything in the dark. May we help them see with our light and may our love be greater, stronger and more powerful than their hate. I see a day when those who beat up trans people today, we will need to talk them down from beating up people who utter the slightest disparaging words against the trans people of the future and that day is not long off if we begin with letting them know that they are forgiven and commence the hard work which is needed today.
((This article is in response to a second beating in recent weeks of a transgendered person in Atlanta.))
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