Justice or Just Us?

(Caveat- this one gets political)

By now the entire Western world, Eastern world, in between, and Planet 10 by way of the 8th dimension have heard about the fate of Osama Bin Laden (OBL). So shall it be to those that kill over two thousand plus people, unless your name is Bush. By now we have all heard how a Seal team defied the odds and fought their way into a fortress and shot OBL twice in the head.



Then the GOP started wondering out loud if this was “legal.”



Oh please. Don’t get me started- party of torture, concentration camps, and illegal wars. But I stray from the point. OBL and his organization plotted the murder of people for many years. Clinton shot at him with Tomahawks and missed. Bush didn’t care one way or the other. Three years into his administration, President Obama signed the orders that caused OBL’s death. He paid the price. Justice is served.



We know this- it’s been everywhere.



A couple weeks earlier, a trans-woman was beaten in a Baltimore McDonalds for entering a ladies room. The two attackers beat her until she suffered seizures. The staff of the restaurant was so concerned that they recorded it and cheered the attackers. The staff then urged the attackers to get away before they could be arrested. Maybe it matters that the attackers and staff were black and the victim white, but it doesn’t seem so. One of the attackers attacked a black woman a couple weeks previously in that same McDonalds. The guy filming it was eventually fired.



A few weeks later, the Baltimore DA finally charged the attackers with hate crimes. What took so long? Maybe he wanted to see if he would lose votes for supporting the TG community? Who knows? But in any case, the news cycle had already moved on. Everyone was now on the Bin Laden story, then the Trump stupidity, then a Royal wedding, then Newt. The only people following the Baltimore story are maybe Baltimoreans and hopefully the TG community.



And so I finally come to my point (figure I had one, right?). The past month has been historic times. We saw the death of the head of a terrorist network (and the seizure of his computers and papers- think that’ll help us more than torture?). We saw the opposing party attack the president trying to divest him of the credit for ordering this. We saw beginnings and endings. Oh and the rapture didn’t happen. All these things- wow! So what about Chrissy Lee Polis?



Remember her?



The news has passed her by as has an opportunity for us to hammer away for our rights. With the video on our side, public sentiment was rolling at least a little. Rallies. People learning about us as people, not as “freaks.” Some even saying this was our “Stonewall:” A flashpoint after which everything would change- where the TG community may finally move forward to being recognized as people.



Ms. Polis is still in Baltimore. Still living daily with the fallout of that attack. Hell, she hears in the media that her one attacker is "a well-mannered, thoughtful young lady, and I firmly believe that when this case comes to trial, she'll be found not guilty." She would be the one whose mouth put most sailors to shame and who dragged Ms. Polis across the floor by her hair. How thoughtful of her!



The fact is that we are again alone on this. It’s Just Us. And I don’t mean the album by the Monkees. It comes down to not just the activists- the Mara Keisling’s, Chloe Prince’s and Donna Rose’s. It is down to all of us each time that jerk says something, or when someone truly curious WANTS to learn. It’s about education. It always has been. It has to be.



In the end, we are outnumbered by they. They will wave religion at us. They will wave social convention at us. All we have is that this is who we are. We didn’t choose this life, but we represent it. All of us- From the part time crossdresser to the full time transgender to the person still hiding scared in their apartment. And as representatives- as teachers- we can win this. Dr King proved this. Gandhi proved this. We CAN have rights. We CAN live our lives. Because otherwise, any of us could be Chrissy Lee Polis. Or Stacey Blahnik Lee, murdered. Or so many, many others. Not much of a choice is it?