Transgender Day of Remembrance: Embracing Our Whole Human Family

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Posted: 11/20/11 03:03 AM ET
Rev. G. Jude Geiger. Unitarian Universalist Minister

It's heartbreaking to read the many reports of teens and young adults considering or committing suicide, or our young people bullied and victimized for being different. Many of these teens are struggling with sexuality and gender identity in a society that's not always accepting. With Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20th, we remember all those lives who were brutalized or murdered for their difference. Since this is literally a life and death matter, as a religious people we ought to feel compelled to deepen our understanding of the causes of such pain.

Transgender and Gender Queer youth and young adults -- whether gay, lesbian or heterosexual -- are sometimes gripped in a vice that pressures them to conform to both sexuality standards as well as gender norms. This results in far higher than average rates of homelessness and suicide in our young people who identify as Transgender.

Transgender identities often elicit reactions of confusion, judgment and dismissal, even from progressive liberals. We sometimes hear people say that individuals undergoing these sorts of physical changes are dealing more with psychological problems than hormonal. That most of us have clear sexes, so we can have clear genders. That pushing the stereotypes around clothing, work and relationships are one thing, but pushing the boundaries around bodies are another. I will say to this that I have heard all of it before referring to gay and lesbian men and women. I have been told that my love for another man is a psychological problem -- that my hormones are not the real issue.

I imagine that most women may have heard the same sorts of things regarding their lives, their careers, their families. They are willful for seeking that job, or that position, or that relationship. They are disrespecting their family or their culture when they delay marriage, or move in with a lover before marriage, or postpone having children in favor of their career. Although some men certainly do hear the same sorts of critiques, I find that most males have another set of guidelines to live up to. Simply put, the rules are different for different genders. And while the situation is all the more confusing when gender isn't clear, we can choose to go a little deeper and find the commonalities to which each of us can relate.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-g-jude-geiger/transgender-day-of-remembrance_b_1097622.html?ref=religion