When I think about the transgender community, I often think about how divided we are amongst ourselves and how there are always the obvious things that keep us so.
I had the opportunity a while back, to sit in on a discussion about Maine legislature and how Trans people could be included in that, what kind of rights/bills would we like to see happen within the next five or so years.
When seeing each person in the room talk of their own experience and what they would like to see happen for trans people. Now, when you've been to enough caucuses regarding gender and or sexual orientation I always see a clear division of class. In this particular group, the common thread was health insurance. One half of the group who has the concern of 'how we can get health care to cover srs's(sexual reassignment surgeries)?'
and the other half of the group with the concern of ' how do we get health insurance?"
I've really tried to gain perspective from these people. I've also really tried to point out that our community is lacking so much more. Our resources are slim, and our community is so divided amongst so many issues.
As a young person, but old enough to have privilege regarding age, I have tried to be really active in the youth community. I've always tried to point out the lack of support and resources young people have. But I can imagine when you're older, since high school bathrooms don't pertain to you, one could easily just sweep such an issue to the side. And if you don't have to deal with your parents, or homeless shelters then why should you care?
I think thats one of the biggest struggles in doing community work is that a good portion of us are all so wrapped up in our own struggles and our own oppressions that we forget there are other people out there struggling. There are other people that we are connected to. I often feel like theres a struggle of "my oppression is bigger than your oppression" and in our community there is a hirearchy and a feeling of "I am more trans than you" or "I've got it worse than you."
Much like within the female born versus the male born struggle, we find reasons to argue with one another on Whos got it worse?
There is common connection here, there is a common thread we all share. We are all human. One who has different experiences than me could easily have a different agenda than myself. But I would like to say that doesn't mean we should just sweep one another's issues under the rug.
If health insurance is important for us as a Transgender Community, than its important to recognize that some people don't even have health insurance. Its also important to recognize that should someone have insurance, in most cases, health insurance does not cover Hormone Replacement Therapy much less surgeries. We should look at all of this, I however think that theres a latter to follow. This doesn't mean though, that I think the other stuff is important but I think that there are stepping stones.
I guess my point to all of this is that I wish we were not so divided as a community, I think we could get a lot more work done that way.
