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It’s June, Pride Month. Twelve months ago, I celebrated my first Pride as an out transgender person and it was one of the most magical and moving days of my life.
Everywhere I looked I saw people like me and on that day they weren’t ashamed of who they were or afraid to be seen. It was a whole day of love and handholding, of laughing and kissing, and it was beautiful. All of us were beautiful, a whole crowd of beautiful, little rainbows.
Twelve months have passed since then. Twelve months of seemingly relentless legislative attacks against the queer community and the trans/non-binary community in particular. It has been an emotionally challenging time to be transgender and it has taken me the full twelve months to get my head around it.
How could this be America? I was always taught (and believed) that, in America, you are free to be who you are and do what you want just so long as you don’t harm others. So how then? How could there possibly be so much hatred and fear of the queer community?
The reason is obvious. The people preaching this hate, and the institutions that they represent, believe that queer people are doing harm. They believe that my living as an out trans person is doing damage to society. That thought broke my heart until I realized something. They are absolutely right.
I am dangerous. I am dangerous and so is every other queer person who choses to live their truth.
No one understands the power of truth better than a liar and today, in America, our society stands on a foundation of lies. This country was built around the promise of equality but we’ve long known that that promise was made with crossed fingers and forked tongues.
All of these bills and laws are being proposed and passed in defense of a system that depends on fear and shame to convince the strong that they are weak. These people, these governors and pundits, senators and self appointed guardians of society, those who would hide us, threaten us, or shame us til suicide, they want all of us to believe that their institutions are built from solid, righteous, brick. But that isn’t the truth. They want us to believe their walls are unassailable.
