I posted an interview today over at Yeah Books. It really hit me hard as I was reading through the interview document. I need to start including a trigger warning in my interviews because this one bottomed me out to a sobbing mess on the floor. Literally. I'm not making this up. It took me almost an hour to get myself back together enough to start typing this post. I'm sure it will go through more edits before I finally post it because I'm typing through tears and hyperventilation. If you are not sensitive to the topic of suicide, particularly Transgender persons, please go to Yeah Books and read the interview that posted today.
http://www.yeahbooksblog.com/2015/06/author-interview-love-spell.html
The interview began normally. Talking about general conversational topics. Then it turned with the question "Did you meet any interesting people during your writing process" or something similar. The author begins on a retelling of Transgender suicides beginning with Leelah Alcorn and progressing through almost a dozen others.
This. shit. bothers. me. And why? Because these beautiful lives have been snuffed out because they couldn't see any other way out. They couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. And you know why? Because there isn't one for them. Once you graduate high school, it doesn't get as better for them as it gets for gay people. They deal with crotch grabbing (which IS sexual assault) at PRIDE celebrations. They have worries of being killed because of the bogus "trans panic" excuse that still holds up in court. As a matter of fact, trans panic was legal in all fifty states until 2014. California was the first state to step to the plate. California is the ONLY STATE to step up to the plate. Trans people are assaulted verbally as they walk down the street and have to resort to stabbing people with scissors because they are being attacked and who goes to jail? Not the people who started the fight. It's the Trans woman.
Why are these people committing suicide? Because we, as a culture, refuse to see the beauty in diversity. We refuse to accept that someone may not fit into the nice, neat little boxes society has told us we have to fit into. We refuse to see that we are ACTIVELY HARMING others mental wellbeing by insisting they prescribe to an ideal that makes the world at large comfortable.
It's bullshit. This has to stop. And it stops here. And hopefully with you. PLEASE. If you have a way, donate to the two places that could have helped Leelah and other Trans youth like her.
http://transequality.org/
http://www.translifeline.org/
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