Prodigal

~3.22~

“My question is why.” I said, continuing my presentation. “I want to understand why so many people in this world hate me so much because I am transgender. Am I hurting you? Am I hurting your loved ones? In what way am I affecting you?”

I brought my next picture up on the screen, which was a picture of a men’s and women’s public bathroom.

“Public bathrooms.” I answered. “This is how I will hurt society, right? Sure, you can pretend to be accepting to satisfy your Lord Christ that tells you to love thy neighbor, but you aren’t accepting because this one aspect of society, bathrooms, gives you an excuse to hate transgender people. Let me try and understand this through the eyes of the bigots. I am a transgender woman. But to them, I’m a man in a dress. Even worse, I am a man who doesn’t want to wear a dress, but does so I can go into the women’s bathroom. So me, the man in the dress, is going into women’s bathrooms and raping women. That’s a problem, right? Being transgender is hurting you, because of me raping women in bathrooms, is that correct?"

I paused. “There has been not one single reported case of a woman being raped in a women’s restroom by a transgender woman. Not one, in the history of the world. Alternatively, one in four transgender women will be raped or sexually assaulted. One in three will be beaten, and over 80% of the assailants will be by men. If I go into a women’s bathroom, there is a zero percent chance that anyone will be raped. If I go into a men’s bathroom, however, there is a one in three chance that I will be mercilessly beaten, just like I was by a random stranger in the park two months ago.”

It was time for me to wrap it up. “So next time you want to hate on a transgender person, stop and think about why you want to be this way. And next time you see a transgender person being hated on, do something. It could literally save a life. Thank you.”

The end of my presentation was followed by mediocre half-ass clapping by the class.

“Why did you attack me like that?” Ethan snapped at me after I gave my presentation. The teacher gave us a five-minute break in the middle of class.

‘Leave it to you to make yourself the victim here.” I shot back. “Just leave me alone, Ethan. I’m so done with you.”

“Everything you said was bullshit. Face facts, Emmett, you’re a man. And you always will be.”

Gracefully, I ignored his comment and decided to stop feeding into his bullying.

Notes

Next chapter is the finale of Arc 3, but there WILL BE a fourth arc!