Damn Skippy We Have The Right To Dream

I read Laverne Cox's recent HuffPo article which talked about the Jenna Talackova Miss Canada Universe controversy and a transwoman's right to dream.

But like Laverne, I'm troubled by the arrogant presumption of cis people that they have the right to interfere with our human rights by any mean necessary.

We struggle to achieve the first dream in terms of making our minds and bodies match and being able to live our lives in the gender role we present to the world.   That task is difficult enough without having a vast array of haters eagerly working to place barriers in our way so that we can't achieve our dreams we had for our post transition lives.

We transwomen must push back just as hard against the people determined to kill our dreams and aspirations and fight to make them a reality.

I want to see more transpeople in a position where they can fearlessly go after what they want to achieve in their lives, no matter what they are.   The fears I had about transition in the context of the information I had available to me in the late 70's and 80's caused me to defer some of mine, which in hindsight I shouldn't have done. 

I don't want transkids in the 2K10's and beyond to make that mistake.   I want you to realize that you not only have the right to dream big dreams as Laverne stated in her article, we have to do everything possible to put ourselves in the best position to make them a reality.

That means we have to get our educations. We have to develop a sense of pride in ourselves as transwomen that is so solid no one can make us feel ashamed and guilty about who we are as people.  We have to develop unshakeable faith that we can not only do anything our minds can conceive, we can get it done if we're willing to put in the work to make it happen. 

We've already demonstrated that ability around the world with the people who are trans politicians, actors, models, flight attendants, teachers, college professors, business persons, activists, singers, ministers, athletes and parents raising children.   I want to see that expanded to where I see trans people breaking new ground that people considered impossible for us or weren't even thinking about when Christine Jorgenson stepped off the plane over 50 years ago.

We transpeople are part of the diverse mosaic of human life.   We deserve every opportunity to live happy, healthy and productive lives.  We deserve to be able to safely walk the streets in our various nations without the fear that someone is going to aim transphobic violence at us.

And your damned skippy we not only  have the right to dream, but we have the right to expect that our human rights will be respected, protected and codified into the laws of our various nations so that we can defy the anti-trans dreamkillers out there and focus on making our dreams come true.