Carla Lewis-Note To My Young Trans Folllowers

When  marginalized groups are fighting for not only their very existence and their human rights, the discussions on how they do the advocacy work to get to the point they aren't messed with can be heated at times.  I've been in it now for 18 years and have seen how heated those discussions can get.
Carla Lewis is one of our kick butt community leaders in Tennessee, and she felt compelled to write this note on her Facebook page to all the young trans kids who follow her.  They are sentiments I share when it comes to our trans youth and I believed this needed to be signal boosted.

Our trans children are our most prized assets, and they must be protected and defended from attacks by our enemies.

And now, here's Carla.

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There are a handful of young transpeople that follow me on social media. To them I want to state this:

You may witness frequent arguing and fighting among transwomen, in particular. We each have our own ideas about how the world should be better.

The one thing we all have in common is that we do not want your youth to be filled with shame and self hate. We do not want you to have to buy black market hormones. We do not want you to be coerced into reparative therapy. We do not want you to have to navigate in a world that wants you to die or go back in the closet. We do not want you to take your own life.

We cannot get our innocence back. We cannot erase our years of shame. We cannot erase the discrimination and loneliness we experienced. We cannot erase our losses.

We do not want this to be your future. This is why we fight in this world. This is why we bicker with one another.

We may never know a world where being trans is no big deal, but you will. I promise.

Right now, whatever you are going through, please know that anywhere in the world you are, you can reach out to a trans brother or sister and know we will help you in any way that we can.