International Day Against Homophobia & Transphobia

One day to remember and discuss, one day to decide to act or let die.  One day to be human or don’t care about this part of humanity.  And for you who read this text : I am lesbian; I am transsexual. I am mostly a human, a woman, a feminist, an artist, a novelist. I am just a human being… I want to live in peace, security and freedom, like you. But, they kill us and put us in jail. They forbid us the rights of human beings; they forbid us to live in public. Because we are homosexual, not a crime, just a natural thing, a law of biology. Note a choice, just a fact and a peaceful and safe reality.

I want to live without fear. But I’m always afraid.

Share this post and thank you very much.

• I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.
• I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.
• I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.
• We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.
• I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.
• I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.
• I am one of the lucky ones, I guess. I survived the attack that left me in a coma for three weeks, and in another year I will probably be able to walk again.
• I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.
• We are the couple who had the Realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.
• I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.
• I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.
• I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.
• I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.
• I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.
• I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.
• I am the man who died when the paramedics stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.
• I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I did not have to always deal with society hating me.
• I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don’t believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind.
• I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.
• I am the person who is afraid of telling his loving Christian parents he loves another male.
• I am the woman who was found dead on the street, because she had a wife
• I am the man who was thrown into jail, for getting assaulted when the police found that i was gay.
• I am the child who sleeps on the streets, because their parents wont let them back in.
• I am the boy who bears scars from the priest that was supposed to be rid of the demon that had taken hold of my soul.
  -I Am the woman who was raped, and beaten because she didn’t like men.
  -I Am the hundreds of thousands of people who committed suicide, because they could not stand what they where.

Illustration : Tribute to Kyoshi and Daeithil, main characters of the novels « Erdorin » by Stéphane Gallay