People ask me why I care. "Why do you care about LGBTQ issues? You don't have a gay relative, or kid or something..." Why do I care? Because one, they're people, like anyone else. Two, I'm always going to be for the underdog. I prefer people who are a little different. Not just LGBTQ. Anyone with a story. Believe it or not, there are some people who have no story. Or stories. Their lives look like a flat line on Grey's Anatomy. Nothing really bad happens and nothing really great happens. They have very little adversity because they don't take any risks, they're family life is somewhat normal or they're too weirdly private to wear any of their dysfunction on their sleeves. It's boring. I've said a thousand times, I have a short attention span. Well, it's even shorter for people with no story. #SorryNotSorry
The LGBTQ community was born into their underdog status, just by virtue of not fitting a box that other people have decided is right, normal or usual. They didn't choose to be members of a discriminated crowd. They just are the underdog because of who they are. To me, that doesn't fly. I'm not okay with discrimination and hate towards people just for living their truth, being happy, finding love. Or whatever. I don't know why anyone cares. The only reason I've seen given is religion. Well, religious persecution hits way too close to home for me. So that's a no-go right there. Since no one religion has been proven "correct", I'm not about to take that "Word" as "The Word" of who gets to love whom or who gets to live as a certain gender just because they were born with a certain set of genitalia.
Further- I watch a video like this and I see a KID. A CHILD. She's fifteen, by the way, for the haters I saw in a comments section, bitching about her faux lashes. I happen to think she applies her make-up better than people I've seen behind a MAC counter. But she's a child. Just trying to navigate life. I remember being fifteen. That was a difficult year for me, without feeling like I was living in the wrong body. Assigned the wrong gender. So, it's called compassion. Say it with me- COM-PASS-ION. It's not that hard to have. If it is, you're the problem, not this girl.
I put this video on- at work- which I don't recommend unless you have a box of tissues nearby. I do. I watch a lot of stuff that makes me cry at work.
I have a friend, someone I known since kindergarten, who told me, he just doesn't "understand" transgender. His problem is with trans girls "who are really boys" in the locker rooms with his daughters. Or on sports teams, with his daughters, having an edge. He believes that there are boys who would pretend to be trans to have access to the girls bathrooms and locker rooms. I could explain until I was blue in the face. I think, for some people, until you put a face and a story with with who would be in that locker room, it's maybe a hard sell. But I hope he sees this and it makes an impact. He is a nice guy, who has compassion, and doesn't feel like anyone should be bullied, but he just isn't in the head space yet to grasp it. The more he's educated on the subject, the more comfortable I hope him, and people who think like him, will become.
I would challenge anyone to watch this video, look at this little girl's face and mannerisms, and tell me she should be using the boys bathroom and locker rooms. That would be ridiculous. Abso-fcuking-lutely, ridiculous. LOOK AT HER. How could someone deny this is a girl and should be allowed to do whatever comes along with being a girl? Like peeing in a bathroom or changing in a locker room. Is she threatening? Does she look like she's just trying to get a peek at your daughter's private parts? Come. On.
She said she knew she was a girl since she was two. Her mom let her buy feminine clothing when she was ten. She said it was the happiest day of her life. I'm only sorry it took until she was ten to be able to live on the outside how she felt inside. I read somewhere she wants to be a supermodel. I totally feel like she could.
Here's a girl, so HAPPY, just to be able to live as who she is. The rest of us, lucky enough to be born in the right body, the right gender, not to feel different, alone, and afraid because our parts don't match who we believe we are, get to just live. Now she gets to just live, and is ecstatic, for just that. And all it took were parents and a principal who were understanding and accepting. If the rest of the world was only so understanding and accepting. #Tolerance
Best of luck Corey Maison. Thanks for sharing your story. Hopefully the people who think we need bathroom patrol for transgendered people will watch this and a light bulb will go off. I can't wait to show this to my seven year old son who loves to see these stories where people are able to live their truth.
#YouAreBrave
The Bully Project:
https://www.facebook.com/bullymovie/videos/1130600896986386/
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