Well Behaved Trans People Rarely Make History

If you think you've seen this title somewhere before, you're right.

I paraphrased it from a fave t-shirt and bumper sticker slogan that states 'well behaved women rarely make history'..


There are times when cool headed, polite discourse can go a long way toward securing our constitutionally guaranteed civil rights.  

But there are other situations in which coming meekly hat in hand and saying 'Please give us our rights' ain't gonna cut it especially with people whose heads and hearts are carved from stone or have agendas that do not correspond with yours.

That means there are going to be times in which we are going to have no other choice but to get in Fight The Power black beret wearing mode to shout, scream, raise our fists and say 'We're tired of this BS and we aren't going to take it anymore'.


There are times that events like the 1965 Dewey's Lunch Counter Sit In protest,  the August 1966 Compton's Cafeteria Riots, the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, and the trans community rage that erupted in 2007 after we were cut out of ENDA are necessary in order for our issues and our voice to be heard.


These folks showed up, showed out, and the rest they say, is history.   

We're at a point in time where civil rights is being rolled backwards, the powers that be don't care and we need to be screaming bloody murder and using all the tools in our civil rights tool boxes in order to reverse that trend. 

If that means no more Mr. and Ms. Nice Trans, then so be it.   If that means we need to channel the spirit of Sylvia Rivera and be in the face of friends, allies and foes alike if they are impediments to our gaining our constitutionally guaranteed civil rights, then we'll have to be tough minded enough as the trans men and trans women we are to do so.

Because as history is bearing out, well behaved trans people rarely make history.

But ones who speak up, tell it like it T-I-S is and act up do.