It Wasn’t Always That Way.

Over in France a trans race car driver made history by planning to drive in the 24 Hours of Le Mans,

Trans racer looks to break barriers at 24 Hours of Le Mans

Charlie Martin: ‘Being visible as a trans woman at Le Mans – a lot of good can come from that’
Stonewall spokeswoman aims to become the first transgender driver to contest the French classic, seven years after facial and reconstruction surgery
The Guardian
By Giles Richards
November 21, 2019


Charlie Martin is a driver with grand ambition, her aspirations undaunted by anything the world of motor racing can throw at her. Martin has faced the very heart of darkness in preparing to take her own life before choosing to embrace a new one through the arduous process of gender transition. Now she stands as a role model, one of the latest “champions” chosen by Stonewall to promote its LGBT Rainbow Laces campaign.

Martin lives and drives with the passion and exuberance of someone who has already decisively conquered their greatest fears and for whom every moment is simply a joy to be seized. Unsurprisingly she has embraced her new position as a spokesperson for Stonewall’s campaign, which begins on Friday, aimed at encouraging the LGBT community into sport.

“I am trying to help create a positive change on society,” she says. “To inspire other people to live without fear and live with their true selves, to take those steps on their own journey. Working with Stonewall really helps, I hope we can together reach more people. I am very proud to be their first sport champion from motor sport. It is a huge opportunity to do good.”

She said transitioning was the hardest thing that she did and the second hardest…

Returning to racing proved perhaps her second bravest decision. “I was concerned people would not accept me,” she says. “The thing I loved would become the thing that I hated, that was my fear. I was shaking going into the paddock.”

Another trans race car driver from Corinth, Mississippi didn’t find that acceptance,

A NASCAR RACER ON HER SEX CHANGE
By Newsweek Staff
May 12, 2007

J. T. Hayes won over 500 regional and national championships in go-kart, midget and sprint racing and competed in NASCAR Winston Cup before undergoing sex-reassignment surgery in 1994 at age 30. During the two years she transitioned from man to woman, the Corinth, Miss., native raced throughout the South and California, wrapping an Ace bandage over her breasts to flatten them out ("Boys Don't Cry"-style), wearing baggy T shirts and tucking her long hair under a baseball cap. Now as Terri O'Connell, she's had very little luck breaking back into the racing world. O'Connell still lives in Corinth with her elderly mother and is working on a clothing line for female NASCAR fans. The petite redhead is also writing a memoir, "Dangerous Curves," (due this fall). She'd like to get back on the track and is currently looking for a sponsor.
[…]
It did. I had two roommates who outted me. After my story broke in the Charlotte press, NASCAR officials went nuts. In fact more than nuts. They were putting their TV contracts in place with Fox, NBC and TNT at the time and they were hell bent on killing the story. I was the last thing they wanted in their midst. But I had been living with those bubbas for four years, socializing, doing business, drinking coffee and eating donuts, and dating a few of them. I really pissed them off at the highest level. They just want me to go away. Not doing it! Some people said if you can get a sponsor you can come back and race, but they know how difficult that is. You need more than $100,000 just to get out on track. Maybe someone will sponsor us at some point. Maybe I just need to get more aggressive and do it.

Maybe times have changed, maybe NASCAR has changed, maybe pigs can fly.

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Last Wednesday was the Transgender Day of Remembrance and a friend who is a LCSW posted this article that I want to share.

What is International Transgender Day of Remembrance and why is it so important?
Pink News UK
By Emma Powys Mauruce
November 20, 201

Trans allies across the country will be marking the day with a series of events to highlight the suffering experienced by the transgender community worldwide.

In Leeds, several LGBT+ organisations have joined forces with the NHS to host a pop-up exhibition and a candlelight vigil.

Another candlelight vigil will be be held at The Queens Peace Fountain in Southampton, hosted by Hampshire Feminist Collective and The Art House.

It stated off as a just another article on the TDoR but what caught my attention was,

Being at the unfortunate intersection of homophobia, transphobia, racism and sexism, black transgender women are disproportionately targeted by this violence – so much so that the average life expectancy for a black trans woman in the US is just 35 years old.

And…

She [Laverne Cox] said: “I think the people who are attacking trans women, what I say to men, is that your attraction to me is not a reason to kill me. There’s this whole myth that trans women are out there tricking people and deserve to be murdered, and that’s not the case.

“There’s been a market for trans women in the realms of dating and sex work for a very long time, we don’t have to trick anyone… We have to lift the stigma around attraction to trans people, and we have to lift the stigma around trans people existing.”

Many of the murders were seeking to have sex with trans women and then their homophobia guilt kicked in, or they were knowingly dating a trans woman and their friends found out so he killed her.