A Year Later, “Nothing” Has Changed Since Transgender Woman Islan Nettles Was Killed.
*tears*
Constance…I really need your support…we human beings who are transgender need your support. This link documents how we transgendered people are considered essentially sub-human, when we are considered at all.
It can only change as your identification of us as human is made an absolute axiomatic given.
I have sought here, at Grace Notes, to be an educator, a dialogue starter, an exhorter, an encourager…it is my hope that as you read here, listening to my words and feeling my heart, you can get in touch with the life, and verve, and passion, and hurt, and joy, and highs and lows (in other words, the human experience we share in common).
I am incredibly blessed…I am rich beyond compare when I consider my plethora of talents and gifts that have been bestowed on me…and I have a voice here through my writing, an opportunity to speak for those who have no voice, or have no way to express what they feel so all they can d is howl in despair and rage and pain.
But without you, we are nothing, and we count for nothing, and we can do nothing…because we do not have access to the power and privilege that you do.
Please…go read…and remember that each one of those precious souls was created in God’s Image, loved infinitely by God, and is just like you in their hopes, dreams, longings, fears. They might have made different life choices, and we all know that life choices have consequences…but that doesn’t mitigate their worth, value, and significance.
I have been soo incredibly honored by so many of you with your trust, and rewarded beyond belief when someone will comment “my friend Charissa”…thank you!
I would be honored even deeper if you would begin to watch for an opportunity to befriend someone in your area, someone whom They would lead you to…there are a lot of “Charissas” out there…your kindness just might make the different between life and death.
Soo much grateful love…soo much earnest exhortation!
Charissa
Charissa's Grace Notes 
You keep doing what you are doing. Every post makes a difference. Every time you open someone’s eyes- educate them on what that T stands for, it’s one step closer. I think we are all doing our part. I think things are changing very very slowly.
Thanks Kat…and more important are you moms and dads who are definitely doing yeowman’s work, raising your children with the love and respect they deserve by virtue of being human.
I will keep sowing my seeds, singing my songs, and writing my lil poems…and pray my tushie off!
🙂
This is another beautiful touching tribute. Your writing helps more than you can know, it gives courage to those who desperately need to become brave.
thanks for the encouragement GK
I seriously don’t understand how a person changing from one gender to another translates to violence. Isn’t it a personal decision and none of our business? I had a colleague go from woman to man and he married a woman colleague. We all went to the wedding. Who cares? They’re all happy, and nothing has changed about the person, in our eyes, except his first name and that he’s comfortable as himself. Thankfully now he has been allowed to obtain a passport and driver’s licence as a man. Good job Government, and as for the rest of us, we didn’t bat an eyelid.
Thank you for your support, heart and soul.
If, by the rest of you, you refer to those in your circle, blessings and thanks for your staying of hands and inferring of health.
but as for the “rest of us…” that us has batted far more than eyes. That us has batted heads against sidewalks, fists against face, words against heart and soul, and eye against me…always in the eyes, fists flying and eyebrows beetling with clubs and battlements.
as i read that it sounds so overdramatic…until it sinks in that every 29 hours in 2015 a transgender person has been murdered by themself or someone else…and that is just those who are known to be transgender. So many are stealth lest they be broken…but get caught on the teeth of dysphoria
It is an important wake up call, because it is clear to me that human rights education is not universal, even in a developed or industrialised country. It’s none of our business, is the key issue. People don’t need to have an opinion, agree or disagree. It has nothing to do with us. Human rights education needs to make this clear. Even people who say they have a good education don’t get this. So, awareness is key. The issue is, how to raise the standard without sacrificing lives. Because people don’t really go to bat for the underdog. What is needed is a giant win. It has to be big enough to distract people from their bigotry enough to realise they’re being silly. Something to think about and plan for. A social issue definitely worth all our time and energy.