Tales Of Courage And Not.

Where we are has a lot to do with how accepting our neighbors are towards us and other trans people.

When I transitioned I didn’t tell my neighbors, I figured they could figure it out easy enough and besides I almost never see any of my neighbors. The only times I see them is when walking to the mail box or driving out of the driveway and I include myself in that assessment.

CAN A TRANSGENDER FARMER SOW SEEDS OF ACCEPTANCE IN THIS RED STATE?
OZY.com
By Nick Fouriezos
August 25, 2017

[…]
Swartz is transgender, having started her transition more than two decades ago, long before Caitlin Jenner entered the cultural lexicon — back when few even knew what “trans” meant. Since then, the 55-year-old has crisscrossed the sandy plains of the deep-red Cornhusker State, where less than a fifth of residents live in communities with explicit workplace protections against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Sharing her story in schools, churches and community centers, Swartz has been asked to speak by the ACLU of Nebraska and the pro-LGBT group Caring Catholic Families, among others.

In a state of fewer than 2 million people, where residents joke there is just “one degree of separation” from one person to the next, the power of her lone voice is amplified. “Here is a person who has transitioned, and yet is still assimilated in our culture,” says Chaplain Royal, a gay pastor who operates a nondiscriminatory wedding service in Omaha. “Whenever we create opportunities for the Ashleys of the world to share their story, we create safer spaces for people to learn, ask questions and break down those barriers.” And as progressives and LGBT activists debate how to make gains nationwide, Swartz is showing the impact of choosing to stay within one’s own community. “If you want to make a difference, Nebraska is the front lines,” says Adam Morfeld, a Democratic state senator, the place “to be fighting the battles that need to be fought.”

And her transition hasn’t been easy on her family,

Of course, that doesn’t make the fight any easier. After transitioning, Swartz watched as children picked on her two kids, and her former church friends called in a gay-conversion therapist. Nor did it help that President Donald Trump tweeted in July that transgender people would no longer be allowed to serve in the military, although no such bans have been implemented yet. “Nobody has been complaining about [trans service members], so it’s kind of frustrating that it’s happened,” Swartz says.
[…]
Swartz’s activism in Malmo has mostly taken the form of her quiet, but powerful, presence. Sitting in the local firehouse, where she has served as a volunteer firefighter for almost three decades, her journey is displayed for all to see. A dusty squad photo from long ago shows an unsmiling “Kevin Swartz,” but farther along the wall there’s a newer photo of Ashley posing confidently with her fellow firefighters. Although one squad member said he would feel uncomfortable going into a fire with her, she says most have been supportive. Back when she was considering gender reassignment surgery, a banker responded that he didn’t know what she was talking about — and didn’t care. “It’s kind of old news here,” the banker, Stuart Krejci, told the Omaha World-Herald in 2015, adding: “You have to hand it to her. It did take a lot of courage 20 years ago.”

I remember reading a book when I was little that my mother bought me for a birthday present (…Ugh a book!) but I read and it made a lasting impact on me; the book was written by President Kennedy and was “Profiles in Courage” and I think we all can write our own “Profiles in Courage.”

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Then we have the other side of the coin, with those trans people who support Trump, yes there are those who do other than Caitlyn. We might not understand why they support a person who wants to make us sub-human and criminalize us.

Who’s behind the mysterious rally in Berkeley this Sunday?
The transgender Trump supporter hosting the event says it will be peaceful
The Mercury News
By Patrick May
August 25, 2017

While the Bay Area braces for a whole slew of political rallies of various persuasions this weekend, plans for a reportedly white-supremacist protest in Berkeley on Sunday have gotten a bit complicated, featuring a President Trump supporter and transgender event host known to her colleagues as “Based Tranny.”
[…]
Amber Cummings, a transgender woman who lives in the Bay Area but has reportedly refused to reveal where exactly she lives, made a surprise appearance outside City Hall earlier in the week, responding to reporters questions about the “anti-Marxist” rally planned for Berkeley’s Civic Center Park by her and her colleagues.

Cummings, who is associated with groups that have held three other rallies in the same park and has appeared in photographs holding a sign that reads “TRANSWOMEN FOR TRUMP,” told reporters that her event is not about hate speech or white supremacy.

However,

Still, Cummings once appeared in a photograph at a rally next to Norther California activist and white supremacist Nathan Damigo, founder of Identity Evropa and a player in recent violent clashes in Berkeley and the more recent incident in Charlottesville.

She then goes on to state,

Cummings goes on to say that “I do not invite or condone anyone showing up to this event with the intent of starting violence. I also want to add I do not stand with any racist groups like the KKK , Neo Nazis, or any form of racist groups. You are not welcome at this event and please stay away. I myself am a transsexual female who embraces diversity and loves diversity. This event is not a event of hate speech it is a event about concerns of Marxism in America.”

I have news for her; if she supports a racist, transphobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, and sexist president you are one also.

The way I see the trans people who support Trump is that they put their money before human rights.

I read a comment on Facebook asking where is the condemnation by the Log Cabin Republicans? There has not been peep out of them.