Why You Can’t See 1.6 Million Transgender Americans
We’re hiding in plain sight*
The answer is simple, we don’t want to be found.
Most of those in my transgender community just want to live a normal life, with all its ups and down, but they can’t.
We are attacked, vilified, murdered, fired, abused, and harassed by society, singled out for public ridicule and hate by politicians, religious leaders and their media parasites and many times, sadly, rejected by the very ones we love.
We are the innocents that upset the gender binary balance the most and we’re the easiest to attack.
Why are we the easiest victims to attack? We lack a cohesive political or social block. Politicians can ignore and attack us with impunity because our voting power is so minimal, and we don’t represent a big enough demographic group to attract advertising. Can you just imagine ads selling gaff underwear or chest binders during the six o’clock news just after the period-proof underwear or Viagra ads that currently populate the commercials at my dinner time?
So, let me define my minority to understand why we don’t matter.
I simply googled the following questions:
How many Americans are there in US?: 335,395,743 million
How many Hispanic people are there in America?: 62.57 million
How many Black people are there in America?: 41.6 million
How many Asian people are in America?: 18.43 million
How many LGBQ (excluding “T”) people are there in America?: 18.4 million
How many American Indian people are in America?: 6.79 million
How many Transgender people are there in America?: 1.6 million
So, who are we hiding from? Who are the hunters?
There are voters who believe that we should not have equal rights.
I googled the following questions:
How many Protestants are there in America?: 160 million
How many Conservatives are there in America?: 114 million
How many Republicans are there in America?: 83.84 million
How many Catholics are there in America?: 70.43 million
I know I am throwing many people who are more accepting of transgender people into each of the categories above, but they are a minority. Their votes don’t count against the organized leadership of each of the groups above and there are many more groups that I could add to this list, but you get the point.
We are only 1.6 million people scattered across this nation. We aren’t even large enough to have a concentrated physical community. We represent the classic Roman maxim: “Divide and Conqueror”. If no one speaks for us, even if we yell loud ourselves, we are not heard because the media would rather sell advertising than tell the truth.
So, we hide to live, we hide to survive, and we even hide who we are from ourselves to endure. But if you listen carefully, if you really look for the truth, you will hear our voices and maybe, just maybe we will let you see us.
…but you have to earn our trust.
Emma Holiday
*To remain unseen despite being in full, unrestricted view.
Thank you for reading my work.
Please also read:
My writing has three specific goals:
1. Writing is my therapy. I have a very limited outlet for my thoughts so I write to find a way to process the most profound experience in my life. I need to understand and I need to accept myself to move forward.
2. Being transgender, for me, is a very lonely existence and if I can share some of the things that I feel and think as I go through the process of transitioning with others who are transgender and, in some way, lessen their pain and sense of loneliness, then all of this public exposure of my personal thoughts is not a waste.
3. I write to help cisgender people understand that all trans people want is to be simply understood, accepted and treated as a normal person. We are.
