do not “drop the t”

The country is again at a historical impasse. Another ideology has surged and it’s way beyond the line of discrimination, bigotry, and segregation. How do we, as the human race, not understand that the more we segregate each other into smaller groups, the more we lose our humanity? When will the segregation end? We are one human race, not a juxtaposition of smaller and smaller groups divided by simplistic characteristics.

It’s November 2015, but it might as well be November 1520.

Currently, a petition is being passed around to drop the “T” from the LGBT(QIA+) acronym. It’s formed by a group of gay/bisexual man and women who want to drop the T that represents the Transgender humans from LGBTQIA+ community.

Before you sign the petition there are a few things you need to ask yourself: When did we forget that we are not the third sex nor are we aliens from another planet here on earth to convert people? How can we forget that racism, homophobia, transphobia, and bigotry has been fought to be accepted as normal because we are normal. The Pride flag represents many within a whole. What will the new flags be?

The LGBTQIA+ community has been fighting for better a better world without hate. We have fought for decades to educate the public that those of us who are not heterosexual are still human beings and above all NORMAL. Don’t let that be taken away from us. I am normal.

In the ’80s and ’90s, gay men discriminated against lesbian women and vice versa. How we easily forget that. Have we forgotten how during that time we did everything possible to hurt each other? Gays men fighting against lesbians, what was that about? That episode was embarrassing.

The debate over dropping the T has taken a new turn. We are now segregating, and purposely, openly, discriminating trans people. Why are we becoming the new bigots to people who are physically different than the so-called new hetero and homo normal?

The heterosexuals have finally started to accept the gays. Gay men have accepted lesbian women. And now in November 2015, we have a group of gay/bi/lesbian individuals who wish to segregate transgender people. Who will we discriminate against next? Will the next segregation and discrimination be the Bisexuals from the LGBTQIA+ community–oh wait, that’s already happening. After that, will we have the Lesbian women discriminating against the gay men? And what happens after that? Do the butch lesbians discriminate the lipstick lesbians? Will the Bears and Cubs discriminate against the Daddy’s and the Twinks? Will the transgender males discriminate against transgender females? Oh wait, this is, for the most part, ALREADY HAPPENING.

During the Spanish colonial period, Spaniards developed a complex system of racial hierarchy, known as the Sistema de Castas. In Spanish America (and many other places) racial categories were formal legal classifications. The process of race mixture was termed Mestizaje. Will I be known as FemGay? Will my boyfriend be BiGay? How about if I am more bottom than top? Who will determine these classifications?

Currently, we have the LGBTQIA+ community. According to Wikipedia, “Activists believed that the term gay community did not accurately represent all those to whom it referred.[2] The initialism has become mainstream as a self-designation; it has been adopted by the majority of sexuality and gender identity-based community centers and media in the United States, as well as some other English-speaking countries.”

When will we stop segregating ourselves? I am normal, and by all accounts so are you. Trans people are part of our community, we cannot kick them out. We have fought so hard to be treated fairly, now is not the time to discriminate within our community. If trans people wanted to separate from the queer community that is their prerogative, but gay/bi men and women kicking them out…that is just plain offensive and transphobic. And it needs to stop.