The kids are alright

I also volunteered several times for this campaign. Week after week kids showing up to get on the phones to call random strangers on landlines. Landlines that skew to an older demographic. Not that older people cannot be open minded or already on board. I talk to lots of people 70+ who were already on board with voting Yes.

But some of those people on the other end of the line were just terrible to everyone. It was nerve racking, you didn't know when the phone would connect. You would hear a beep that a human answered and then a name and age and other info would show up on the screen in a split second as they say hello. I was so tense almost every moment. I didn't have that strength at that age. One of the kids, 12 years old, they had volunteered every week since APRIL, and this was not a one off case. I met many kids like this, and parents of kids who they were doing it for their kids. I met 9 year olds facing down strangers on the phone. These kids are tough. So many at the rally last weekend and even the smaller one on Copley in September.

And my friends 22-30, they don't give a crap that I am trans. It is getting better for trans people despite setbacks. Although it was a lot more quiet pre-2014, before we became a walking political issue when the right realized they had lost the gay marriage battle. So they decided to use the same tactics that worked so well for so long against gay people. And now I am a political issue. we have it hard enough without this [expletive] crap.

If you want to help even slightly, just please don't stare. Like I stared the first time I saw a trans person as a kid... it sucks to be looked at by kids. BUT i also understand the curiosity, you just didn't see trans people growing up in a suburb in the 90's. So like I GET it, its interesting, but just I really hope if you have to stare that you do it at me, cause I don't care but there are LOTs of emotionally fragile trans people who are going in public the first time dressed how they want and they never do it again for years due to a bad experience of any kind and staring can be that. So please look us in the eye if you are talking to us, and don't stare if you can avoid it. I totally get the curiosity, trust me, but most trans folks would be so much happier to just blend in and enjoy their life. I have interests, I am a whole person, hobbies, job, friends... being trans is such a tiny part of who I am, I have so much I want to do and see that have nothing to do with being trans.

You ever get dressed up as a kid by your parents? It felt stiff and stupid looking but you were going to something fancy. And you know that feeling that you are DYING to get out of those clothes and do anything possible sneak off of that dress coat. It didn't feel right, you were used to cartoons on your tshirts and basketball shorts. That dressed up kid in the event picture is not really who the kid is 99% of the time.

Now imagine you can't take that dress coat off. Ever. That feeling of that coat on all the time? That is what being trans is like for me. And the small things I do to feel good about myself and the way I dress can get me killed.

Thank you for reading and if you ever wanted to ask a trans person a question that you were too embarrassed to ask, feel free to reply, I don't get offended, I just want to help people understand who are curious. What hormones can do to ones bodies or how kids can safely block puberty to decide if it is right for them, how I pee, "offensive questions" the whole deal is on the table. Just don't ask a trans person on the street "what is in their underwear". A statement yelled at by a man in his 50's speaking to a trans girl who was only 15 years old.

We need more allies.