Diana’s Little Corner in the Nutmeg State: Are You Visible?

Sunday, March 31, 2019

Are You Visible?

Today is the “Trans Day of Visibility” which is one of two days that I have concerns about, the other is national coming out day.

I add a caveat to being visible… BE SAFE!

Your safety should be your primary concern, ask yourself is it safe to come out? Will I be thrown out of the house? Will I lose my job? Will I face harassment or violence?

Maplewood to raise flag in honor of International Transgender Day of Visibility
TAP Into
By Linsey Kelleher
March 30, 2019

MAPLEWOOD, N.J. - Township officials will be honoring the transgender community this Sunday during a flag raising event.

Elected officials from Maplewood Township and the Township of South Orange Village are co-hosting the event to celebrate International Transgender Day of Visibility, a national day that celebrates the transgender community. International Transgender Day of Visibility is March 31.

The event will be held on Sunday, March 31, at 2 p.m., on the front steps and lawn at the Maplewood Municipal Building, 574 Valley St.

There will be speeches from several local leaders, a proclamation to honor International Transgender Day of Visibility, and a flag raising to show solidarity.

But on the other side of the country…

Oregon Mayor Rejects Trans Day of Visibility, Claims It’s “Discriminatory”
In response, trans rights supporters are fighting to make Canby the welcoming town they once called home.
NewNowNext
By Nico Lang
March 27, 2019

Trans people in a small Oregon town have reportedly faced severe backlash after its mayor rejected a proclamation honoring the International Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31.

The controversy began last Wednesday when Sarah Spoon, a city councilor in Canby, Oregon, forwarded to Mayor Brian Hodson a request from members of the local LGBTQ community to recognize the annual event. According to its website, the International Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV) was founded in 2009 to celebrate “the accomplishments and victories of transgender and gender non-conforming people.”

Hodson rejected the petition, saying he already signed an inclusive “safe city declaration” passed by the city council in 2016. While that declaration pledged to further a “culture of mutual understanding and appreciation for the inherent value of all within our community,” it did not mention transgender people.

“I will have proclamation requests to favor all individuals, because setting aside one group based on race, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or other characteristic would be discriminatory,” he wrote. “Don’t you agree?”

The city councilor who asked for the request said,

“We hand out proclamations like candy,” she claims. “Hodson claimed he has said ‘no’ to proclamations before. I have no public record of that, and the city recorder said that he hasn’t said ‘no’ in over a year.”

So evidently there is bias in the mayor rejecting the proclamation.

Okay, I’ll bite… what is a trans voice?

Amazon Alexa has enabled a transgender voice for International Transgender Day of Visibility
The device will invite the listener to visit a change.org petition applying pressure to advance trans rights on the UN’s human rights agenda.
Pop Buzz
29 March 2019

Amazon Alexa users will be able to access a transgender voice on International Transgender Day of Visibility (March 31st) to initiate a much-needed conversation on transgender issues.

#VoiceofTrans will see UK users of Amazon Alexa-enabled devices be able to activate the voice of a transgender man by asking “Alexa, open the voice of trans”. The project has been inspired by a desire to give the Trans community a platform, allow them to tell their story and to have their voice listened to. Their aim is to make trans issues a national talking point.

Once activated, the voice will go on to thank the listener for wanting to listen to him and will proceed to tell his story, which will be compiled from a series of real-life experiences from members of the transgender community around the world.

It seems that it is not a “voice” but rather speakers talking about various aspects of being trans.

Whatever you decide to do on this International Transgender Day of Visibility be safe!

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Quotes

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.

A right delayed is a right denied.Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.

Martin Luther King Jr.

No one is born hating another person… People must learn to hate and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.
Nelson Mandela

We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist
James Baldwin

There is a fine line between free speech and hate speech. Free speech encourages debate whereas hate speech incites violence.
Newton Lee

The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.
Albert Einstein

"The point is that there are always obstacles, whether they seem insurmountable or merely bothersome. The question is not how difficult the path, but whether in your heart, you wish to undertake the journey."
Zandru's Forge

Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior. Keep your behavior positive because your behavior becomes your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.
Mahatma Gandhi

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

You've Got To Be Carefully Taught
You've got to be taught
To hate
And fear
You've got to be taught
From year
To year
Its got to
Be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to
Be carefully
Taught
You've got to be taught
To be
Afraid
Of people
Who's eyes are oddly made
And people who's skin is a different shade

South Pacific
Songwriters: Oscar Hammerstein II / Richard Rogers

Sunday, March 31, 2019

Are You Visible?

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