EDITOR'S NOTE:This post was saved in draft status for nearly six years. It references discussions around the recent coming out of trans model Andreja Pejić.
It is safe to say, it was not important enough to post at that time. Today I feel differently about it and I believe it has value, if only to hold a glimpse of my mind, well before I lost it.
The discussion swirled around the need to further conversations past the cursory curiosity questions and into the marginalization experienced by all trans people, minimum in some, much greater in many.
However, at one point she touched on where [Andreja] Pejić will align herself in terms of advocacy and whether it is fair to place expectations of activism or advocacy upon out trans people.
I think coming out is an feat of activism. It's action that benefits a cause.
Yet, there should never be an obligation for someone who happens to be transgender to be drafted into compulsory service.
Many want resolution to the years of marginalization and microaggression they faced. I understand the need to balance out one's life.
Yet there is not a national transgender entity, where our members who dedicate themselves to service of others, can come together to promote solutions to communal needs. We have LGBT organizations which tokenize trans people and trans organizations which serve to monopolize the issue space.
Everyone wants to play leader.
There is a better way. It involves the collective conscience of community, no longer bound by birthright or access, or how self important one thinks they are. Where color and conformity are not barriers, but beneficial attributes.
Because society places too many expectations of external change upon the trans individual coming out, many do not realize the process they are enduring is seeking gender authenticity.
Hegel gives us "Identity is the identity of identity and nonidentity." Welcome to the nonidentity.
