You know having thought about it...
...there's really only one way to fight against all the nonsense that's sent the way of crossdressers and transfolk and that's to normalise it and there's only one way to normalise and that's to make it visible and there's only one way to make it visible and that's to get out there in the streets, in the shops, the bars, the cafes, the workplaces, the buses, the trains, the planes, the schools. Everywhere. Why should we be forced to hide, to cower, to live in fear of what the neighbours might think? Why should we have to put our wigs in a bag and a big top coat on when we leave home just because the neighbours might think that we're a bit odd? Why should we restrict ourselves to the quiet times, the quiet parts of town, the LGBT quarter, the gay bars, the safe spaces? Why should we have to plan in the extreme just to get one week away a year to be as we need to be? We shouldn't. We're as normal as the next person in line and we have a right to be here and we have a right to live as we need to live. Back in the day gay men had to meet in cottages, well public toilets, they had to hide away and run the risk of being outed by a agent provocateur, a plain clothes policemen, back then national heroes who had helped win the war, people like Alan Turing were chemically castrated for being gay. Never mind they cracked the Enigma code, never mind the countless lives they saved by shortening the war, no, they were according to those in power, dirty men and had to be stopped. Now we have same sex marriage and quite rightly gay men can live and work openly, I would say without fear, but no, sadly not completely without fear. So, the moral panic has changed its focus, taken aim of a new target, the new bogey man, the new monster at the end of the garden, the figure to fear and to ridicule is the trans folk and the crossdressers, they, we, are now in that firing line. But we don't need to be, we can turn the tables, we can make ourselves seen, we can shout loud and proud, because at the end of the day, we are normal and we have a right to be in the world. One of the big problems that we have, one of the big things that those who would do us down, those who would do us harm, use against us is our sense of shame. You see it here, on these pages, the self-inflicted shame and pity that is expressed on these boards, the hiding away, the furtiveness, the secrecy, the lies. All that can be used against us and those with power know how to do that and use our own weaknesses against us. But, at the end of the day, we don't need to accept that. We can make our own rules, we can play our own game. It won't necessarily be easy, or quick, nor will we all be able to move at the same pace, but some can lead and others can follow. Together we have strength. We can turn this around, trans and crossdressing is normal and can be made to be seen as normal. Well that's what I think.
