With all of the ongoing buzz regarding the recent sex change of Bruce Jenner, who is now Caitlyn Jenner, I can't help but have formed my own opinions about the transition.
As many of you probably heard and watched, Caitlyn Jenner recently accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYs, and this certainly stirred up some conflict among the public. Courage can be defined in more ways than one. I can't say that Caitlyn didn't deserve this award, because I don't personally understand what she as a person has gone through during this change. What I can say is there were plenty of other people that also were equally deserving of this award for their amount of courage in other ways.
Everyone is entitled to their own happiness and free will. I can't personally agree with the choices made by the transgender community, because it is my belief that God didn't create human beings a very specific and perfect way for us to turn around and alter our genders. That's not how our path of life is set for us. I truly believe we were built and created with the perfect touch from God. Everyone won't agree with me, and that's okay. However, what we as humans need to realize is that those of the transgender community are still humans. They have feelings, they read the comments posted about them online, and they go through discrimination in just about every aspect of their lives.
For example, are you aware that 26% of trans people have lost their jobs due to their sexual orientation? 50% of trans people have been harassed at the work place, 20% have been denied housing, and 78% of trans students have been assaulted. In the U.S. alone 41% of transgender people attempted suicide compared to the national average of 4.6%.
No one, absolutely no one deserves to go through this kind of abuse. This phobia should not spawn violence. As a culture we have forgotten that you don't have to agree with someone in order to show love and compassion; disagreement is not a reason for hatred. It's not my place, or anyone's for that matter, to judge this decision made by Caitlyn or those who are a part of the transgender community. I will never understand their reasoning for altering their gender or understand what they go through on a daily basis, but it's our job as a society so defined by diversity to accept this type of diversity as well and to treat the transgender community with equal respect.
I've noticed quite a lot of negative and hateful comments regarding the story of Caitlyn Jenner posted throughout social media. There are always going to be those who voice their opinions, and that is the beauty of living in America, but let's rewind back to being little when our parents told us "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all." Yes we are entitled to our own opinions about the subject, but continuing to post the mean and hate-filled comments for others to feed on is not okay. Just because we don't necessarily understand something does not mean we have to show hatred towards it. That is pure ignorance. It's best to just agree to disagree.
