Discrimination story collection begins

I have begun the process of heading up collecting transgender discrimination stories statewide. Today the first email went out asking for stories, and right away I got a reply from a woman who had a story. It isn't that the story itself was all that shocking or unique, because it happens all the time, but reading all the details, and actually receiving it from the person that it happened to was difficult for me.

I found myself wanting to find a way to help her, knowing that really there is nothing I can do. And she didn't ask for my help. I hope that telling her story and knowing it will help the cause was liberating for her in some way, but I can't know that.

It is paramount that legislators and council members hear her story, because her story is a ubiquitous transgender experience. We all know these stories - we hear them everyday, we fear them with every job we take, every time we come out to someone new. They are part of our lives in so many ways, and yet the story itself when told by the person who actually experienced it has so much more power... And when all those stories are told in unison, this chorus of experience is hard to ignore. That's what we need to be able to bring to the table. We need to show not anecdotes and folktales but experiences connected with real people, and the only way we can do that is for trans people to share their pain with me.

I don't think it will ever get easier.

---

To submit a story, call INTRAA toll free at 888.657.1854 or email me through the site here. Soon you will be able to submit stories directly through the website. I will update this entry when that feature is available.