I Am: Trans People Speak ally video

This is my I Am: video. I am: a trans ally. 

Script:

I am a writer, a daughter, an entrepreneur, a woman, a dog trainer, a bisexual, and I am a trans-ally. I’m speaking out because there’s way too much focus on what’s in your pants instead of your head. I’ve heard the horror stories of harassment from my transgendered and transsexual friends. I’ve heard about being denied a job or fired from one, about being sprayed with a hose while walking your dog, about being threatened just for daring to go out to eat or grocery shopping. Transpeople are people first and foremost, and no matter what gender or lack thereof they choose to go by, it isn’t anyone else’s business. Being trans isn’t an illness or moral shortcoming. Asking to be labeled as a woman, man, or neither isn’t shoving anything in anyone else’s face, it’s just a request for the same respect and dignity they show you. I’m tired of my friends being legally beaten and discriminated. I vow to stand up for my trans-friends by calling out hate and discrimination, and by asking them what they need and want instead of making decisions for them.

Occupy Wall Street

The movement has finally been broadcast by mainstream media (but after we all already knew about it, of course). I’ve tweeted, Facebooked, sent in letters to editors, and generally told everyone I could about it. I’m wholeheartedly behind it, especially since NYPD brutality has seemed to become the norm in dealing with these peaceful protesters.

See some of the myriad videos of the brutality here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxZ8_JdKm0Q&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fresults%3Fsearch_query%3DNYPD%2Bpunches%2Bout%2Bwoman%26aq%3Df&has_verified=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTdbTIE8lrU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVqLHntKPHY

Mainstream media, of course, doesn’t seem to comprehend what’s happening. Occupy Wall Street has been called everything from a bunch of dirty hippies, to whining entitled children, to a violent bunch of unwashed college kids. So many lies have been spread about the movement that it’s heartening- because when people start lying about something it’s to hide it and cover up its message. Occupy Wall Street is becoming too big to ignore.

The media also seems unable to grasp what the movement’s goals or message is. It’s been called too broad and chaotic, unable to cohesively unite for a single purpose. Those, of course, are lies too. There are college students who make up this movement, angry because they worked hard, earned their degrees, got themselves in thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, and can’t find a job. There are war veterans, still marching because their benefits have been cut and their healthcare is in danger.  There are white collar men, and blue collar men, women who can’t afford to feed their children, women with PhD’s that can’t find a job besides a fry cook at McDonald’s. These are people who are angry that their air is so dirty their children can’t breathe right anymore, that their food is poisoned and too expensive, that they can’t find a decent job, that they’ve been disrespected and called lazy, entitled, ignorant because they need help in a country that doesn’t place people above profits anymore. One cohesive, united message? Occupy Wall Street wants corporations and big money out of politics, and their voices back. That is the primary message, and it was all too easy to understand. Every single issue and demand the movement has made traces back to this. There isn’t one single goal touted because there are lots of goals they want met. Unemployment, clean air, nutritious food, safe streets, a voice, these are ALL important, and all should be guaranteed in a country as rich and powerful as ours. There are no whiners in the movement, no entitled brats, no lazy people. Only people who worked hard and did everything they were supposed to in order to be successful, and now have nothing.

Here is the movement's first official release: http://occupywallst.org/forum/first-official-release-from-occupy-wall-street/

Here is the We Are the 99% archive link: http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/archive

I am part of Occupy Wall Street. I’ve been to Occupy Cleveland. And from not only personal experience, but those of my friends  and family, I know that this movement is truthful.

I am a twenty-five year old recent graduate. I hold a Bachelor’s degree. I was on the Dean’s List for the last two years of that degree. I started my own non-profit student organization and volunteered with two others. I worked part time almost the whole time I was at college, often while running my organization and maintaining a minimum 3.5 GPA with eighteen credit hours. I volunteered with grassroots campaigns and worked hard at everything I did. I even earned a certificate from the school for my work with my non-profit organization.

I am now living in my mother’s basement because I can’t afford rent or even groceries. I can’t find a job that pays above minimum wage (and minimum wage is NOT a livable wage, not for me as a single person and certainly not for the woman supporting two children). The only work I’ve found is as a pizza delivery driver; it’s only part time and minimum wage.

I’m almost forty thousand dollars in student debt, mostly owed to the Federal Government. I have a loan from one private loan company which has more than doubled in the past four years. They have me on 30% interest.

Even worse, I’ve just received my first notification that my student loan payments are going to begin shortly. I have no way of paying them. My car needs brakes replaced and tires, and has a hole in the exhaust pipe.  I haven’t been to a dentist in five years, or an OB/GYN in six. I have health insurance through my Dad that is going to expire soon, but I can’t even afford to pay copays. I rely on my family for everything from groceries to a roof over my head, and am going to have to ask them for help to fix my car and pay my bills. I have $200 to my name, and at least $100 is going to bills this month. It’s a horrible, nasty feeling.

I did everything I was supposed to, and excelled beyond many of my peers. I did the extracurriculars, I took the hard classes, I did the community work, I worked my ass off. And five years later I’m worse off than when I started. I hate being in this position, and if I had any possible way out of it I would have taken it by now. I am so sick of being helpless and relying on my family’s charity. I’m sick of being unable to support myself or get ahead. I have no savings and no job prospects, and am already in so much debt. I can’t think about retirement because at this rate I will never make enough to save enough to retire, much less buy a home or a new car when mine dies, or take care of myself if my health fails. This is terrifying. It’s bone-deep, soul-shaking terrifying.

So I support Occupy Wall Street. I support them with everything I have. I support them because my younger friends are already reaching the end of their unemployment benefits, before the age of twenty-five. I support them because corporations HAVE taken over, and have been granted civilian rights when they don’t have the responsibilities or accountability actual people have. I support them because I worked hard, I did everything I had to, and I’m done with being helpless. I support them because I don't get a bail-out. I will be arrested if necessary, I will take a policeman’s fist to my face because I dare speak up and say that THIS IS NOT RIGHT. I will wade through the lies and stay strong, because we’ve had enough.

We are the 99% and we are awake now.

Street (or parking spot) harassment

Yesterday I was loading my car up with boxes (I'm in the process of moving from my apartment to my mom's basment- more on that later), sweating my ass off in the heat.  I have a Honda Element, which allows you to fold the seats up to the sides so that there's a lot of stowing space.  I had to climb in to stack some boxes near the front, since I was loading from the back hatch.  And of course, some idiot drives by in a little red wannabe sports car (I know who you are, jackass) and catcalls me as I'm bent over boxes, struggling to stack some more.  I ignored him with much restraint on my part, since I'm not used to keeping quiet about harassment.  A few trips up and down the stairs (I lived on the second floor) later, and there's a man in his mid-forties walking by my car.  He looks like a crack addict.  He decides it's ok to comment on my ass while I'm putting another box in.  This time I get out, look him straight in the eyes and say "Your comments aren't helpful, and you're sexually harassing me.  Leave me alone."  He takes this opportunity to flip me off and call me a bitch, strutting his skinny flat ass away like he's won something besides his ignorance.  I'm twenty five years old and I look like I'm seventeen (seriously, I get carded for rated R movies).  This man was old enough to be my dad.

I don't know what it is about some men that makes them think they can sexually harass women who are minding their own business- and yes, catcalling and talking about a stranger's ass is sexual harassment (check out this awesome blog and project about fighting street harassment called 'Hollaback':http://www.ihollaback.org/).  It's all about objectification of women, and that false sense of male entitlement to women's bodies.  Women are sexualized to the point where we've become nothing but sexual property in many regards, a means to status and a symbol of a man's power.  Think of trophy wives and how many powerful men both date supermodels and cheat on their wives.  Men are also taught that they have a right to sex and a woman's body, though not every man gives in to that lie.  Look at rape statistics, and all the bullshit rape-apologists and 'excuses' about why he did it.  Rape is never about sex but power- and look at the overwhelming statistics of male rapists and female survivors.

So, the twenty-something neighbor of mine that will go to his car one morning to find an angry note on it was asserting his entitlement to my body with his catcalls.  The guy old enough to be my dad was doing the same thing, and arguably more shamefully.  Both should have known better, but the old guy might have a daughter.  I wonder how he'd feel if the same happened to her?  Actually, I wonder how either would feel if some jackass like them did the same to their sisters, daughters, wives, girlfriends.

Getting a bit off topic, I also wonder if either of these men thought about what I might be feeling (obviously not).  How was I to know they weren't going to attack me, or try to rape me?  Will they ever know how it feels to be broken down to a set of tits, an ass and a vagina (never a vulva)?  How would they feel knowing they're being paralleled to rapists in my mind, perpetuating a culture of sexual violence for women?  I'm thinking neither of them would really give a shit.

On Dr. Tiller and Abortion

I watched an MSNBC movie about the assassination of Dr. George Tiller today.  I’m familiar with the story, I wore the pin and spread the news about Tiller’s amazing work with women’s reproductive health and his outspoken support of women’s decisions.  Watching this film only reminded me of my passion for women to have a choice, and of the insanity a handful of people can create when they rely on religion to think for them. 

I understand the stance of abortion as murder.  I understand why people are against abortion, and I can relate to an uneasiness around the issue.  I cannot tolerate hate or murder for the sake of fanaticism, and I certainly will not tolerate domestic terrorism against women.

I never see pro-choice rallies and gatherings bombing churches and health clinics, I never see pro-choice people going so far as to assassinate the leaders of anti-abortion groups.  That brand of evil is firmly in the hands of anti-abortion crazies.

I want to be clear.  Abortion is a controversial issue, and I am all for lower abortion rates.  But there is no way in hell that making abortion illegal is going to do that.  Instead of a dead fetus, there will also be a dead woman.  And I value myself and women everywhere way too much to think that’s ok.  Let me repeat that- illegalizing abortion and using blatant lies and scare tactics, harassment and threats is not going to get rid of abortion.  I’ve seen the pictures of dead women with their vaginas torn up, insides spilled out on the ground, curled over puddles of blood.  I’ve heard the stories of women being rendered infertile or crippled because the person claiming to be a doctor in their back alley abortion had never touched a medical manual in their lives.  I remember the stories of wire coat hangers.  And that is an unacceptable era of history to return to.

Ask anyone standing outside a women’s health clinic with a picture of a dead fetus way older than they tell you, and that nut will insist that abortion is bad.  They will also insist that birth control is abortion, and poor women are sluts who keep pumping out kids to get welfare money.  They’ll tell you that welfare is bad, too, and that giving low income families free childcare will reduce us to a nanny-state.

The only way abortion is going to decrease is through comprehensive sex education including teaching about abstinence (and not from a religious point of view), free birth control for women, welfare to help low income women and men get on their feet and keep their children from starving, and free childcare for low income families so they can get jobs and make desperately-needed money.  There is no getting around this.  Look at the statistics, look at the studies.

The women who are being hurt the worst by our current, shameful Republican-led War on Women are poor minority women.  These are the same women branded as welfare sluts.  These are the women who rely on Planned Parenthood as their only form of healthcare.  These are the women who are affected most by abortion legislation, which is quickly turning abortion into a wealthy white woman’s privilege instead of a poor black woman’s right.  These women are the ones who can’t march in the streets because they can’t afford to miss a day of work.  They are the same ones who labor sixty hour weeks at fast food restaurants to support the children they were forced to have because they didn’t have access to or education about birth control and abortion.  These are the women who can barely afford to pay the weekly grocery bill, much less spend hundreds every week on childcare.  These are America’s forgotten women, who are no longer afforded a voice due to their audacity to want a life beyond hand to mouth survival.  These are women who have been pounded into the ground not just by sexism, but racism too.  

Dr. Tiller’s death was one of the worst acts of domestic terrorism I’ve ever lived through, and I saw the second tower fall during 9/11.  Dr. Tiller was a voice for women everywhere, the poor Latinas and whites, and even the wealthy anti-abortion corporate queens who took quiet vacations to take care of the problem growing in their wombs. 

Abortion is and must always be a fundamental right.  No one has the right to tell a woman what she can or can’t do with her body, rich, colored, poor, or white.  Dr. Tiller knew this, and he was willing to stand up to the danger that should not be inherent with it.  I know it, and I have been spit on and had rocks thrown at me for it.  And I will take that nasty, hate-mongering behavior any day if it means one more woman can make her own reproductive choices.

I look at the legislation being introduced today and it’s so crazy L. Ron Hubbard is wishing he thought of it.  My constitutional right as a woman is being slowly eroded by the Heartbeat Bill, 24-hr waiting periods, 72-hour waiting periods, mandatory counseling sessions, crisis pregnancy center lies and scare tactics, mandatory ultrasounds, misinformation and miseducation.  They are telling lies about us and about our bodies, and they are telling them straight to our faces.  If we don’t stand up for ourselves there is no one else to do it for us, and we’ve seen what lack of representation of women in our governments and our politics leads to.  Women are being stuffed back into the patriarchal pigeonhole of house servants and sex slaves, and I am not going to take it lying down.  Dr. Tiller didn’t, black women didn’t, our grandmothers and mothers didn’t.  It’s the same fight, but this time it’s our turn to dig in our heels, break out our signs and say “Enough”.