Transgender: Watching HB2 from Afar

It’s really interesting watching the transgender ‘bathroom bill’ debacle playout in the US. Several states in the US have decided to create laws to allow ‘religious freedom’ to discriminate against those they do not like. HB2 or House Bill 2 in North Carolina, has stated that all people must use the bathroom relevant to the sex on their birth certificate. That is, I would have to use the men’s bathroom even though I present as female. House Bill 2 also stops you suing that discriminator through the courts. It’s like all the hate has congealed into this one topic and all division in society is focused on this one issue.

Oftentimes, what’s in America eventually finds its way over here. I sincerely hope that this debacle doesn’t arrive in the UK. I would like to see common sense and compassion prevail.

There have been some good changes to allow the LGBT communities in the UK to have the same rights as the general population. Do we really want to go back to the dark ages where vast swathes of society bullied, vilified and demonised those they did not like? They cannot burn witches any more so they must find other victims to have their pounds of flesh to make themselves feel more superior.

People keep asking, “Why do we have to legislate everything?” The answer is simple. It’s because of people’s belief about religion, and about themselves and others. Some would harass and slaughter just because they could. Limits on acceptable behaviour need to be set down so everyone is working from the same page, so they can understand the boundaries in which society works better.

In America, you have millions upon millions of guns and people ready to use them. You have the religious right hankering for the blood of those they hate. Put them together and you have a powder keg of gigantic proportions ready to explode in a millisecond. Conspiracy and overblown ideas you say but look at history. History repeats unless you take great strides to understand what works and what doesn’t. Conflict will always be the default option until you realise that that doesn’t work. Conflict always results in more conflict. We cannot evolve as a human race unless we try another way, a way that’s based around compassion and a willingness to listen to another point of view.

People rarely take responsibility for their own beliefs and emotions as then they would have only themselves to blame. “It’s always someone else’s fault; never mine.” “If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have acted like that.” “They acted against God’s laws so that’s why I had to hurt them.”

In the media and YouTube, there are voices from both sides of the toilet debacle, neither truly willing nor able to understand the other voice. Nor are either side willing to see the implications from the transgender man/woman/child perspective or to see the transgender experience as real. There are still significant numbers in society who see this as a mental illness or a lifestyle choice rather than something fixed before birth.

Both sides are setting up metaphorical and literal barriers to stop the other from winning. Most of these barriers are set down religious lines following the old, well-worn paths of discrimination and judgement that say only they are right, righteous and good, following God’s rules for the meek and the humble. I still cannot understand why, in the 21st Century, religion has the sway it does. Ancient books should have no relevance beyond interest and history and should certainly not limit our moral and ethical expansion now. We need another way of seeing.

Both sides are in fear, a fear that they will lose their current beliefs, that they will be forced to change their views of another human being. Beliefs give someone a sense of who they are. When you criticise their beliefs, they think this is a direct attack on them so must fight rather than consent to dialog.

Trans people are human beings with human emotions and human frailties. Or do you still believe we are in some way tainted, subhuman, an abomination, not worthy of your love and understanding?

Unlike being transgender or gay, religion ‘is’ a lifestyle choice as it is something learnt through education and/or indoctrination and dogma. We are not born religious. Religion is a belief that grows through teaching and learning and through nurture in religious families and societies. Religion can bring great peace to the soul but also great fear, a fear of the afterlife. When believers live life only for the future, only for death, are they truly and fully present in the life they are living now? Being fully present in our life is what we are meant to be here for and to learn how to express our all to those around us. Planning for some possible future existence is never living fully in this moment. This present moment is all we have.

It saddens me greatly, as yet again, religion and politics seek to dominate and force their appalling views on the rest of the population. It saddens me greatly that the very children they seek to protect will actually be put at more risk by indoctrinating within them a sense of superiority, seeing some as less than them. This action does children a great disservice as it engenders fear, anger and aggression which is very difficult to dislodge from their psyche. Rather than learning compassion they learn to search for scapegoats they can bully so they can maintain that sense of self-importance. They learn that diminishing another person is the only way to find greatness within themselves.

It saddens me greatly that the religious want to protect children from transwomen, an already miniscule proportion of society, when a far larger proportion of priests abused children with impunity. Perhaps those in the churches should get their own house in order before commenting on someone else’s house. Or perhaps this is the point; diversion and spin, hiding the truth and duplicity of corrupt politicians and corrupt religious leaders who have their own agenda of fostering division in a society already fracturing; hairline cracks are made chasms by belief. In all the videos and media I have seen thus far, abuse of children by priests has not been mentioned once. I wonder why?

When you choose to bully another, you both become less than you could be. If you choose to help another, you both grow in stature and evolve as people. When you suppress a person, you lose all of them, not just the part you don’t like. When you suppress a person, society loses the gifts they were here to bring and express. It may take many decades before those gifts return if they ever do. When you suppress a person, depression, illness and suicide become options.

Why do I have to constantly ask another section of society for permission to be myself? And sometimes, they will only ‘allow’ me to show the parts of myself that they agree to, providing that that part doesn’t offend them or challenge them.

Many times I have been able to think far outside the box and see the bigger picture and this scares people because they cannot do the same. Many times I have been willing to show my openness, vulnerability and authenticity and this scares people because they cannot do the same. Many times I have reflected back to people their biggest fears and they cannot deal with the anger, resentment and frustration they feel. They don’t want to feel. They don’t want to feel anything, so choose to blame me. They cannot possibly blame themselves.

We are here to express our soul, completely. Our soul is androgynous, balanced, the observer watching the games play out while it learns and evolves through our experience of our journey between the two states of birth and death. It has no gender and no agenda other than to be a witness.

At conception, we are androgynous, genderless and sexless. It takes months before the sex of the child forms due to the explosion in cell numbers and the effects of DNA. The body and the brain are gendered at different times due to different hormonal surges so there is the remote possibility they will not match. This is what happens in trans people. All humans are on a spectrum so it is likely that some present a greater discordance between brain and body.

Trans people have a very important role to play for society. They play this whether you choose to respect it or not. It is something you cannot hide from no matter how hard you try. You can vilify us, ban us, bully us, create laws which render us unimportant. We are never going away.

Our role is to show you something about you that you have been unwilling to see within yourself. You will try with all your might to distract yourself and others from accepting. Evolution is not static, change cannot be avoided or circumvented. Transformation is an immovable object colliding with an irresistible force.

Trans people are the next step towards becoming genderless, a more powerful representation of the soul in its androgynous and balanced state. This change cannot be avoided and many people realise this on a deep subconscious level. They know they are in fear but cannot understand why so look for someone to blame, a scapegoat to pour all their hate and fear upon. Holding back evolution is like King Canute trying to hold back the tide.

What you resist, persists. Whatever feelings and thoughts rise within you when you meet trans people, is your responsibility. They are YOUR feelings and thoughts. Do not seek to devalue us as in the end, you are the only one hurting. Why hurt both of us?