We Are Not Being Sensitive, You're Being Obtuse .

TransGriot Note:  I like to from time to time signal boost commentary from other thought leaders in the community  in this space.   I liked this one from my Chicago based sis Channyn Parker, and believe that it is a message y'all needed to see, read and hear. 

Guest Post by Channyn Lynne Parker

I don’t really know where to begin, except to say for those of you who champion, defend, and continue to support trans women, thank you.

Honestly, I don’t think any trans person here expects a cis-person to understand what it’s like to have a body that expresses itself incongruently to one’s internal reality. However, what you can understand is the importance and recognition of our humanity.

None of us are blind to the fact there are fractures, rifts and subgrouping within our community along feigned notions of superiority.   But know this, there would be no community unless we trans women had not stood up first.

I hear the word “sensitive” being thrown around a lot, as if to gaslight us into believing that we  somehow are at fault for not recognizing the humor you find in our pain.

I wouldn’t be so quick to call a trans woman sensitive.  Remember, due to our daily existence, we trans women in fact have very tough skins.   What you are witnessing however, is heartbreak.

You can’t be sensitive while screaming in the face of a politician, to give you your right to be legally wed.

You can’t be sensitive while holding the hands of your dying, and burying your dead, and still muster up the strength to stand in the front lines demanding an end to the epidemic.

You can’t be sensitive when sitting in front of the young man who is hungry and tired with no place to go, and all you have to offer him is a little bit of comfort and something warm to fill his belly.

So, if to call us “sensitive” is your way of averting the need for or somehow directing at us a coded non-apology apology, it’s an apology that we do not accept.

We trans women were the wet nurses to this movement when “Gay Rights” was in its infancy. So again, what you’re your seeing and hearing from us is not sensitivity, it is a mother's grief. It is a daughter's abandonment, and a sister's rejection from her very own sons and brothers.

I feel no need to tarry any further as I have made myself abundantly clear with this soliloquy.

Again, I love you all with a love that is divinely mandated, and that love, is the love of respect.