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Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia

Posted on by Zahra / 56 Comments

Hi and welcome to this year’s Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

2013 Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia
2013 Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia

Last year I posted about the increased name calling and violence on the streets despite living in a country where same sex marriage has been legal for 10 years.

This year I’d like to talk about seeing public opinion shift across the world, but especially in the US.

May 17th is International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia. Want to learn how this is celebrated around the world? Check out their website.

Like I mentioned earlier, I live in a country where same sex marriage has been legal for 10 years. It’s never really been an issue so I look at what’s happening in the US with quite some interest.

A few years ago all we heard was people trying to win elections on their position against gay marriage. These were all people calling themselves Christians, but I saw very little evidence of that. They claim to uphold “Traditional Christian Values” but clearly something got lost in translation. Where is the “Respect all people” when you are preaching to “cure” people who happen to love someone of their own gender? Or the “Forgive others” when you ban or wish all sorts of evil on those who don’t live up to your “Christian Values”?
And for that matter, let’s not forget “though shalt not kill”.

I was raised an atheist in a predominantly Catholic country, so I never had a problem understanding the difference between the hateful Christians and the tolerant ones, and knowing which side I’d be on if given the need to choose, but I’ll never understand where so much hate is born. I get that it’s human nature to be weary of anything you don’t know, but educate yourself!
I never understood being transgender until I met a transwoman and had a real, open conversation with her. Since then I’ve met transmen and -women online and experienced quite a few eye-opening moments.
One of the most helpful ones to me is a youtube channel by a transman who documented his transition so eloquently, he’s now a public speaker. Please check out Skylarkeleven!

I am now happy to see that the tide seems to be turning in the US. More and more states are adopting same sex marriage and the Tea Party and other Right Wing Conservatives seem to be a little more quiet these days (or at least they no longer make international news). To me (and I may be wrong, since we get the US news filtered at best) the pivotal point was President Obama’s unequivocal support of gay marriage. For him to stand up for this, in the middle of a reelection campaign no less, took political courage. Glad to see more people (read state legislatures) are following in his footsteps.
They are seeing that you can’t wait for public opinion to sway on this! They have to be in the vanguard themselves!


Proceeds of the sale of my story You Can Choose Your Friends still go to ItGetsBetter.org ($1.20 for every copy sold). Until this world becomes a better place, please add your support.

And for those who’ve read this far down the post: please comment and one lucky person will win their choice of my back catalogue (one novel or short story of their choice deposited in their Dreamspinner Bookshelf).

And last but not least: please continue visiting the other blog posts!


Zahra

56 Comments

  2. Thank you for taking part in the hop!

    In order to combat hatred, we must spread love. Educate others, bring awareness, because every person who has their mind opened is one person closer to a world where homophobia and transphobia doesn’t exist.

    kimberlyFDR@yahoo.com

    Reply

  4. Thank you for taking part in the hop! it always amazes me that it seems like those who call themselves ‘religious’ seem to be the most bigoted people in the world and can’t seem to realize they are harming their very own family members

    parisfan_ca@yahoo.com

    Reply

    1. The blinders they wear never cease to amaze me. The fact they can choose their warped view of religion over their own daughters or sons is beyond my comprehension.
      Thanks for commenting!

      Reply

  5. I’m really amazed and impressed at the speed with which public opinion is turning here in the US. It’s true that there is still a long way to go, but I never thought I’d see such a rapid turnaround from the way things were just ten or fifteen years ago.

    Reply

  7. Great post. I was looking for a way to follow your blog but could not find it. My blog is on wordpress as well. Please, let’s connect and keep the story going. Thank you. BTW – I am the author of a romance drama with a transgender lead.

    Reply

    1. Thank you!
      I’m positive we’ll see that day during our lifetime. I intend to live for along time to see that happen.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

      Reply

  10. Thanks for this post. I can’t wait for the day when sexual orientation is a non-issue here in the States.

    Reply

    1. I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer, but even in my country (and we’ll be celebrating 10 years of same sex marriage on June 1st) it can still be an issue. There are laws to prevent employers from firing you and if you use slurs you’ll end up on the news, but it still takes at least a generation for the man in the street to see it as a non-issue. But there’s definitely progress. And therefore: hope.

      Reply

  11. Personally – ‘to each their own’ is my motto. If what makes you happy is not the same thing that makes me happy – so what? As long as others don’t shove their beliefs down my throat – I am good. As far as same sex partnerships/marriages go – love is love, end of story. Thank you for supporting a great cause and participating in this hop.

    Reply

    1. I agree to a certain extent. I’m all for ‘to each their own’ as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. The problem is that some of these people insight hate and then I’m not as inclusive anymore.
      In other words, as long as they go by ‘to each their own’ as well, I’ll follow.

      Thanks for joining me and for commenting!

      Reply

      1. Oh heavens yes – I totally agree. Let me clarify. To each their own – in my opinion – stands for if you (anyone) wishes to love someone who is male, female, short, tall, black, white or orange – go for it.
        Thanks again

        Reply

  13. Thank you for participating! I’m also European and my country will hopefully soon amend our laws to include adoption rights for same sex couples and the equality of straight and same-sex marriages in benefits and finances. Your country is way ahead! Hopefully more and more US states will come around and marriage equality will be the norm!

    stormymonday AT gmx DOT net

    Reply

    1. Some countries take longer than others. Some countries have other priorities. Sooner or later they’ll all come around.

      Thanks for dropping by and commenting!

      Reply

  15. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful post. It is great to see public opinion starting to change. Long overdue.

    Thanks for doing the hop!

    Reply

  16. Thanks for the link. I’ll definitely check him out. And yeah, that was very brave of Obama ^.^ He’s my favorite USA president to date.

    Reply

    1. I’m a fan too. I don’t understand how so many people can be so against him all the time. I think he’s doing better than his predecessors on so many levels. Not that this is hard to do given who came before him.

      Reply

  17. As long as power is locked into the hands of a single privileged group, change will come hard. There will be a woman president, and a gay president one day. Well before that, marriage equality will happen. People used time, place, and manner laws to corral and oppress African Americans, and those laws were unconstitutional. Marriage discrimination is unconstitutional also, and one day it will be proven. Sorry about the passive voice, but it will happen!
    Urbanista
    brendurbanist @gmail. com

    Reply

  18. testing – comment – if this works please add my name to the drawing for a free read.

    oh you know I will just have to go shopping.

    again.

    HAHA!

    Reply

  19. Thanks so much for sharing your post in this blog hop! I know what it is like to be in a family that is what I call ‘subtlety homophobic’, they wouldn’t think that but I know they would never accept gay marriage due to Christian Values of my pastor father. Such an important subject.

    OceanAkers @ aol.com

    Reply

    1. It’s certainly not perfect, but I can take the subtle homophobes. They’re “convertable” as in, they might be willing to change their mind if they are directly confronted with a gay person. For them, there’s hope…
      Of course, it might be different for a pastor, because they have to follow the rules of their church, but then again, I know pastors who feel that love is love and who go against their church hierarchy, if not publicly then at least privately.

      Thanks for stopping by!

      Reply

  20. Things really are staring to get better. I have faith that one day equality will happen. Thank you so much for your post and participating in this amazing hop!

    Reply

  21. I have never understood hating differences. Not every one likes liver but I love a plate of liver & onions; you don’t hate me for that, do you? Then why hate someone for whom they love; makes no sense. Thanks for hopping.

    Reply

    1. I’ve never understood either. I can understand being fearful of the unknown, but instead of running away from it, I tend to research it. I never understood transpeople until I met one and decided I wanted to get to know her better so I could educate myself. Now I have a much better understanding and it doesn’t ‘scare’ me anymore.
      Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment!

      Reply

  22. Thank you for including the comments on the trans community and your link to skylarkeleven. I will definitely be checking out his videos.

    I am so hopeful for the next generation when I see kids like Jazz (http://www.transkidspurplerainbow.org/) who are so young but speak so powerfully and affect change with their stories.

    Thanks for being part of the hop and sharing with all of us!

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much for this link. I’m so happy to see that kids are accepted for who they are at a much younger age than they used to be. Just looking at Jazz shows you how good a child can feel if they are allowed to act like they feel.
      We’re definitely making progress!

      Reply

  23. Thanks for telling me about Skylar, I’ve gone to watch some of his videos and shared them as well. I also recently watched a video about a transgender girl named Josie that I highly recommend. It’s very moving and she has an amazingly supportive family. Check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsVV_CEd7_Y

    Thanks for participating!

    tiger-chick-1(at)hotmail(dot)com

    Reply

    1. The courage governments like for instance the French show with introducing the Marriage Bills before a lot of the public is ready, is great. We’ve seen too many people in government saying they can’t vote for marriage equality because their people don’t support it, but the man in the street will always be against change. The truth is that once the change has happened, Everyman will see that nothing changes for them, but a lot changes for the people this is meant for.

      Thank you for stopping by and commenting!

      Reply

    1. That’s why I chose it. I think teenagers can feel the support (the grown-ups can too)
      Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment!

      Reply

  27. It really bothers me when someone uses the Bible to spread hate and I’ve seen it happen so many times. Thank you for taking part in the hop!
    sstrode at scrtc dot com

    Reply

    1. Me too. It puts religious people in a bad light because people are going to start thinking every believer is like that.

      Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment!

      Reply

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