My Dearest Friend,
Happy tidings from here in Indiana on this thirty-first day of March in the year twenty, twenty -five. I am glad to hear that you are traveling again. I do hope that you are keeping yourself safe by wearing your “I did not vote for the Felon!” button with you. I have heard that other countries can be less than friendly to us Americans right now because we are currently a threat to the freedom and democracy that we had so fiercely protected in the near past.
I had begun a letter to you previously, but I ended up balling it up into the furnace to be burned up with the wood. It was not that I decided not to share the events with you that I had so lovingly written down, it is more that other things began to feel more urgent. I just wanted to let you know that the space between letters was not that I was not thinking about you, but that life has held so many changes recently that it is hard to keep up.
Today is International Transgender Awareness Day. Since I have many loved ones who identify as trans, this day is so important to me. I am still baffled that this small percentage of people in our society has become such a major obsession with the right. As a woman, I have never once felt threatened by a trans person. Even when I was younger and didn’t fully understand, I wasn’t ever afraid. The only thing that worried me was my saying something wrong that would upset the person because I did not know how they preferred to be addressed or such. But time and education have helped me learn how to be better at navigating things with more grace. I am not perfect by any means, nor have I ever professed to be, but I strive to give everyone respect.
As I ran for County Council last year, I worked to make it clear that I would work for everyone in our community, and I would focus on those who have not been represented by our council for decades. I have had a handful of people mention my personal posts that state my harder feelings towards those who support anti – trans, anti – autonomy, racists, and fascist ideals and say they show that I am not willing to represent them. I have even had a close Republican relative say that I should watch such posts if I hope to be elected in the future. My reaction? I laugh. None of these who hold such feelings to my posts have found it within themselves to hold their leaders accountable for the hateful posts they share. They still elected a felon for the white house. They elected a drunken racist for representative here in Indiana. So, I do not think my posts are going to stop my future electability.
If a person were to feel that I would not represent them due to my opinions on hate, perhaps it says more about them. Because I’ll make myself clear today, I work as a leader in many groups. I willingly and happily represent people who hold different opinions, every day. I welcome opinions that are different than mine. I welcome ideas that are outside the box. I love minds that think differently than the norm, I celebrate such differences because I know that nothing wonderful happens if we all do the same things all the time. But I will not and cannot support ideals that dehumanize people, take away their human rights, oppress people, discriminate, and promote hate. Those ideas are not a difference of opinion, they are a difference in morals. I promise you all that I will never support discrimination. These are not matters that I am willing to compromise on.
If one tells me about their feelings towards a group of people like trans people and that they are not hate, but one of the safety of people, I will simply reply that they replace the word trans with another group. One will not display a photo of the trans person in their family. What if you replace the word with black, brown, yellow, or white person? How well does that play out then? One does not want a trans person using the bathroom with those whose gender they identify as. Replace trans with the different races of humans. Is that segregation something we already said was wrong in our lifetime? Oh, but the Felon has already begun to erase that progress, because they are not the party of racism. And as a side note, who is it really that they are afraid of in the bathrooms? It is not a transwoman. Because transwomen just want to use the bathroom and not be attacked. If one is afraid of a man pretending to be a woman to use the women’s bathroom to attack a female… then the person is clearly a CIS MALE. Most children beyond a certain age will understand that to pretend means to act as something you are not. So, if a male is pretending to be trans that makes him a MALE, not trans and the reality becomes they are afraid of MALES. Males who have a higher percentage of sexually assaulting others than any other group of humans. I mean when was the last time you heard concern of a transman using the men’s room and attacking someone? It is because people do not fear that. In that case, there is a higher risk that the cis males will attack the transman than the other way around and our loudest fearmongers are not concerned about that.
On this day, I celebrate those who are living as their true selves. It is a brave and beautiful thing to be who they were created to be. The world is a better place because of their bravery. I hope that you, my friend, can celebrate this day along with me and chose to help others more aware of the beauty our trans friends and loved ones bring into this world.
Always your friend in good trouble.
Michelle Carr
