Going to need a calculator for this one.
It's Tea Time, it's Tea Time.
Scooby dooby dooby, it's Tea Time.
Tea Time, it's Tea Time, Tea Time with Alex.
Hello, hello, hello.
Welcome back to Tea Time.
Thanks for joining us, and by us, I mean me,
the royal me.
That's why it's us.
On our show we talk about trans issues via
questions, and we have a new one today.
Let's take a look.
All right.
What is one of the most important issues facing
the trans community?
This is a very serious question.
At Tea Time, we love to joke, we love to have
fun, we like to get a little sassy,
but I'm going to take a minute.
I'm going to take a minute to be a little
serious, because I feel very strongly about this.
I know my community feels strongly about this,
and I know that the greater community,
the greater LGBTQ community, our allies, many,
many people feel this way.
I think this is the thing that we have to
fix, we have to remedy, and that's violence
against trans people, especially, especially,
against trans women of color.
It is heartbreaking.
It is heartbreaking every time you turn on
the news, you read in the paper, you read
online that people who have made this courageous
step to be who they are, to live authentically,
which is all that we've done, we've said,
"This is who I am.
This is how I want to live my life."
These people, the people who don't understand
us, the people who do think that we're freaks,
who think that we're unnatural, that we're
an aberration, people who are afraid, who
are afraid of us for no reason don't understand,
or have no ... they have no problems killing
us, beating us up, writing laws against us,
telling us we can't go certain places, telling
us that we don't deserve to be treated like
humans.
This is, at its very core, wrong.
Most people I know are confused by labels.
They're confused by the process of transitioning.
They're confused by all of it, and quite frankly,
most of us are confused at the very beginning.
Every one of us, every person deserves dignity,
compassion, kindness, respect, and if we don't,
as a society, change this, if we don't change
how we view people who are different, different
genders, different identities, different sexual
orientation, different colors, different ethnicities,
we are never going to stop the violence that's
happening in our community, and in other communities.
This is the biggest problem that we face.
We have dozens of reports of things happening,
and they don't usually even make a lot of news.
Most people outside of the trans community
do not understand what is faced by a trans
woman to walk down the street.
I cannot convey to you, if you have never
experienced what it's like to be afraid to
walk out of your doorstep to do normal things,
everyday things that everybody does.
I have to think about every place I travel.
Are there bathrooms where I might get attacked
in?
Can I go to this country if they were to find
out that I'm transgender?
These are things that most people never have
to think about, but we do.
Until we fix this, that is the biggest problem
that we face, that we cannot even walk freely
as human beings in some places without being
afraid for our lives.
That's some heavy, serious shit.
That's the things we got to face.
Those are the things we got to fix.
Above anything else, without safety, without
basic human safety and dignity,
everything else is secondary.
I know that was very heavy, but it's really
important.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you for watching.
Remember to be kind, everybody.
