Awareness is not just that...

I have been thinking alot about awareness and advocacy latey. I wonder why I am so passionate about these two words, and yet just sit her and listen to other people's stories.

I am really wanting to start volunteering in Transgender awareness. I have always had such an appetite for Anthropolgy and studying people. I have wanted to go back to school for that, and Gender Studies. I want to combine my love of film with these subjects. Ever since my sister's friend became "Nick" in high school.

I remember seeing him after not seeing him for quite some time. We were in The Olive Garden, and my sister was talking to him, and I just kind of sat there and studied him. I don't remember if I was 15 or 16, or how old, but after we left I argued with my sister about his identity and gender. I was absolutely sure that he was still she, and had no concept of what he was doing, or had been through. I grew up in such an environment that you would think that I would have been aware of so many differences in people, but in that one moment I was so naive.. and still straight. I knew gay people, as my sister had come out in high school. All of her friends were like my older sisters. They all treated me as their kid sister. Who knew that later on, I would come out~ lol

So many years passed, and I had come out. I had met many people, but still wasn't sure why "he" called "him"self a "she", not did I know all the differences in the terminolgy. What was a Transexual? A Transvestite? A Drag Queen? Gender Queer? Transgendered? And what the hell was the difference? I wasn't closed minded to learning, just still confused, and uneducated about the difference. I hated not knowing. I have always been a seeker. I wanted to know. I looked at alot of information online, but that didn't help me in deciphering who was who in the community. I then met a few drag queens, and later a few transgendered people. Lauren was dating a friend of mine, and was so young in her transition. She was young in general. She was always asking how she looked in her clothes, and how her hair was. She was so insecure and unsure about herself. She intrigued me, though. I learned alot more online and had interesting discussions with Lauren. I didn't know her that well, but found myself sticking up for her with people that I knew, and didn't know.
I didn't understand the hatred she encountered, and couldn't figure out how people in the gay community could discriminate against her. I mean, hello people! What are we thinking??? Here we are fighting for our rights and yet denying other people theirs?? WTF?
My sister then told me about another really close friend of hers that we hung out with in high school. He transitioned. By this time, I understood it. He is really distant from alot of the people from back then. He didn't really want to talk to anyone from back in the old days, and I was like.. but it's ME!! He has to let ME in! We once ran down the street chasing these girls in a car that were throwing hatred out at my lesbian sister and her friends! lol
I understood, though. His life is different. He has moved to a different place to start his life as who he was meant to be all along. He looks great, and I wish all the best for him.

I have changed so much since that time. I still study people like crazy. I love to get to know people. To hear their take on life. Their theories, there families, their struggles. I think one of my greatest goals is to just understand people. I think that if more people tried harder to understand others, that our world would be at a very different place.

I maybe put my passion for advocacy on the back burner for awhile. Life does that to you. You get busy with your family, and time just escapes. But...
I watched the new Real World episode the other day. There is a cute Transgendered girl on the show. Her name is Katelynn. She's young. My heart went right out to her. Here she is, living her new life, post-op, for the world to see, and she is already dealing with people that make me want to go through the screen and slap the crap out of them! lol Really... and this is ALOT of the world. Uneducated, and therefore making her feel like an outcast that doesn't have the right to be there. She has such courage to be out there, just trying to be who she is!

I think I will get with my friend Dom, and see if she has anything that I can get involved in. She started the Transgender Awareness Month here, and is an activist. She's awesome. I just don't see her very often.

Anyway.. I am really tired, and babbling, and really need to go to sleep.
Night~