punkypink (imported) wrote: Thu Apr 05, 2012 4:45 pm
I doubt Canada as a social entity is innocent. I've spoke to a gender-neutral person living in Canada recently. He or she states that the last election the country voted for a socially conservative government that has already resulted in the new anti-trans flying laws. I've heard there's a lot of transphobia running rampant of late in Canada too... so..... yea... Canada innocent? Maybe not.
I'm not saying Canada is perfect by any means. Nor do I agree with the provision that states you have to look like the gender it says on your passport. It is just stupid.
We still have a long way to go as both a country and as a world.
It might surprise you to know that I think of myself as belonging to the trans community, though you'd probably label me a poser. After all, I look male, was born male, and it says male on my passport. How could I possible understand your issues?
I think of myself as trans because I don't think of myself as male. Males confuse me. Their thinking, their drives, their motivations, that is just not who I am. I'm sorry to say, the same goes for women. I get them about as much as I get men, which is not at all.
I'm lucky that I don't suffer the kind of outward prejudice for sexual identity that you do. I can pass. But I still have to hide what I am. I can't trust that people will understand what I am and want to be. I find having no sexual desire to be as difficult as having desire for same sex. I find identifying as neither sex as difficult as identifying the opposite of what I was born.
I don't identify as homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, male or female. The only gender I seem to identify with is the eunuch gender. So I was born one thing, but am really another. If you think I am comfortable in my body, and the gender I was granted at birth, then you can't really understand me.
I'm not going to be so stupid as to ever claim I can understand what it is to try and wear my inner identity on the outside. I'm too much of a coward for that. I envy your strength, and your conviction. I have none of that. It shames me.
I do however root for people like Jenna, and her plight. I feel I have an investment in how people like her are treated. A victory for her, is a victory for myself, even if I'm too chicken shit to put myself out there as she has.
I count myself lucky that I live in a country where Gays have been able to serve openly in the military for many years. Where same sex marriage is legal. Where when an American running a beauty contest in Canada, is shamed into doing the right thing, because our laws don't allow for his bigotry.
I'm proud of Canada, but am aware we have a long way to go. I'm rooting for tolerance to win out over stupidity. Maybe one day, I'll have the courage to live on the outside, what I really am underneath. People like Jenna are the pioneers, and I owe people like her (and you) a debt of gratitude. I see your victories as my own, even if you'll find me hiding under a table, while the rest of you are out there fighting for what is right.
No, I'm not transsexual, but I share your motivations. Your struggles are the closest to my own struggles.
Does Canada need to evolve? Yes. So does the whole damn world. So do I.
Until then, I'll praise my nation's advances, and condemn its failures. I take comfort in the fact that we're not the least backward nation on the planet.
No, Canada is not innocent of prejudice. But at least we were innocent in this latest atrocity from Donald Trump.
