Young Trans Women, Y'all Inspire Me, Too

Someone sent me the link to the KOKUMO interview she'd recently done in which she gave me a shout out.  

As I read it I drifted back to the comments I consistently heard while I was at OUT on the Hill, the Trans Faith In Color Conference in Charlotte and the ones I get via private e-mail as to how I'm considered by you as an inspiration to yourselves. 

But truth be told, you young trans women inspire me just as much or even more than y'all have told me I inspire you to be out and proud about yourselves as women with trans history.

You are the smartest, best educated, most tech savvy generation our people have ever produced.  I have no doubt that your accomplishments when you reach my age will far exceed mine and you''ll have the opportunity to achieve things I could only have dreamed about when I started as an activist in 1998.

Keeping up with you younglings inspires me to constantly work on my activist 'A' game.  I'm keeping up with the latest developments in our community news wise, medically and philosophically.   I'm in contact with a wide variety of thought leaders, and that's why some of you have my home phone number.   I have no problems taking time out of my day to talk to you, listen to your concerns, giving you advice when you ask for it, shutting up and listening when you have something to present I need to be 'ejumacated' on and proudly acting as your mentor.  

And yeah, I have to lay off the Blue Bell half gallons and stay in shape because some of you girls have serious curves and have a killer sense of style to go with that beauty and brains. 

I do so because I wish I'd had more people willing or in the position to do the same for me when I was transitioning or getting into activism.  I wish I'd had somebody who could have broken down the history of our community to us, passed it along and all we would have had to do is build on their progress.  

But all I can do is deal with the trans community's situation as it exists for us in October 2012 and try to give you something to build on to take to the next level.

Yes, you beautiful #girlslikeus are making strides that make me cry tears of joy at times when I think about it.  I see you in movies, standing on red carpets at awards shows, organizing events, running organizations, and doing television interviews and panel discussions with effortless ease.  I hope to see you running for and winning political office and leading our people into the second half of the 21st century while serving as inspirations for the transkids that are matriculating in elementary. middle and high school now.  

Young transwomen, I want you to know that y'all inspire me just like you tell me that I serve as an inspiration to you.   And y'all do so with style, grace, beauty and class.

And that is a win-win situation for the entire trans community