Brava, Caitlyn Jenner

I grew very sad for the state of our world over the past week, and it peaked when I saw that someone had gathered over 10,000 signatures to petition the IOC to revoke the gold medal that Bruce Jenner won at the Olympics, all because 30+ years later Bruce Jenner transitioned to being Caitlyn Jenner.

The people who started this petition are not stupid.  They surely realized that the IOC's policy that was put in place for transgendered competition does not apply retroactively--they sought to penalize Caitlyn because they were lashing out at her for being different than they are.  They do not accept that a person can have issues with their gender identity, and that in some cases, the only way they can live their lives is to transition to the opposite sex. These people sought nothing more than punitive action for someone that has been a public figure and a role model--someone who is having a very public battle with a very difficult set of issues. Nobody who transitions from male to female, or from female to male, does so lightly.

I have to believe that for most of the people that signed this petition, it is simply because they did not know any better.  It is entirely possible that they have never spoken to a transgendered person, that they do not know the pain that has gone on in their lives, because someone who is transgendered does not feel right in the body that they were born with, as the sex that they were born as.  The simple fact of the matter is that the percentage of transgendered people at any stage of their lives is quite small, to the point that the vast majority of Americans have never known someone who has struggled with gender identity.  So, I believe that most of the people that signed that petition do not know that transgendered people are often so wracked with anguish that they decide to kill themselves because of a fear of society not accepting them, and that needs to stop.  We need to educate people on what it means to be different, and get them to stop rejecting things that they don't understand for no other reason than that other people do not fit their mold.

I did say most of those over 10,000 people, and not all.  Some of those 10,000 people are simply intolerant to the point that they will never change their mind regardless of what kind of evidence they see, or who in their personal lives suffers.  Those people, in all likelihood, cannot be reached.  But most people do have the capability to grow and understand, and I applaud Caitlyn Jenner for thrusting herself in the spotlight to cause this discussion to happen on such a public level.

I did not have issues with gender identity at any point in my life.  I'm a gay man that is very happy being a man--I will say that when I was a child, not having being gay as an acceptable lifestyle model caused confusion for me.  What did it mean that I found myself attracted to other boys when I was a younger boy and not attracted to girls?  When I was a teenager, what did it mean when I didn't find myself sexually aroused by the girls I dated?  Did it mean that I was supposed to have been a woman?  I did not have the benefit of a dialog with anyone because I was so hopelessly in the closet until late in my college days.  It hurts children to have a standard that being gay or being transgendered is not normal.  We need to stop hurting children.

If you do not understand what being a transgendered person is all about, please reach out
to someone--the world needs to become a better place, and we will not get there by lashing out at one another.