Washington, DC, USA. "In a time to come, people born transsexual shall shake the conscience of our nation. During the Pride season, let us take joy in who we are and embrace the responsibilities imposed on us by that knowledge." We said something like that in our first Pride editorial: the statement holds true.

We are still here in the Washington, D.C. area, on the eve of another Capital Pride, and continue to consider Pride from an American perspective. After all, the search for ways to perfect our liberties, and dissatisfaction when we fail, animates much of our American history.

TS-Si has always been committed to equal rights for all before just laws enacted for all: our position applies without regard to the views or social station of others. We support the inherent rights and dignity of disenfranchised people without regard to race, class, gender, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, transgender presentation, and other distinctions.

Whether it be the liberation of black citizens from the evil done by slavery and its consequences, battling Hitler and assorted Lords of War, sealing the compact of equality between the sexes, improving the lot of those less fortunate in an economically unbalanced society, or the many other great works in progress, Americans eventually come round to their core responsibilities.

What makes it work in the end is a culture that rests on a bedrock of fairness and a respect for facts. We go wrong when we allow personal self-indulgence to become the basis for public policy. The necessary correctives start with civility, respect, and plain common sense.

Those of us born HBS have experienced first hand the best and worst of our society. We experience first hand the effects of the miseducated, the bigots, and the know nothing opponents of science and rational discussion. But we also feel joy when fellow citizens, with nothing personal to gain, reach out to us with understanding and respect.

We can die untimely deaths because opponents attempt to erase us from history. Many of us die or live in terror because the uninformed assume we inhabit the fringes of society. They try to leave us dead, crazed, terrorized, left in anonymity or miscategorized as whoever the haters choose to hate at the moment.

Well, we have always been here and we shall not go away. We are among America's daughters and sons, sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers, and friends. The randomness of our birth condition assures our continuing presence, delivered into society at all levels and circumstances.

We have seen pockets of progress around the world. We have also experienced increased government repression and sly attempts to confuse our birth condition with life style choices and anti-religious attitudes. In a world where superstition and psudoscientific cultural currents take the guise of official government policy, the transsexual-born are deemed dangerous to public order. Our casualties continue.

Scattered across society as it is, the true scope of transsexuality, the number of individual lives and families it impacts, remains unknown to the general public. For every visible transsexual person, there are at least ten who are not. For every public face that splashes across the media, perhaps a hundred more move through life unidentified.

Although no one really knows how many of us there are, we can note that so far it appears that people born transsexual are exceedingly rare. We will not know our true numbers until a safe environment exists, everyone comes out for treatment, and science takes a hand in establishing our true frequency in the human population.

There are transsexual people who successfully transitioned and slipped back into the mainstream unnoticed by society at large. Then there are those who have not transitioned and live a life of desperate denial. They do not understand the storms that arise within themselves as innate gender identity comes into conflict with their physical body.

The survivors span all categories of positive human accomplishment and fault, and at all times accumulate knowledge known only to those who have overcome what for many others might be considered an intolerable burden. People born transsexual have much to share as we move forward, knowing as we do from experience that partisan positions on all sides often fail to align with our real experiences.

However, we must not confuse increased visibility with acceptance and our attainment of true political and social equality. Genuine public health needs go untended. Those born transsexual who perhaps do not have your advantages can suffer and even die if we do not take action.

The time has come for all people born transsexual to confront public ignorance, halt expanding government repression, and bring to an end the cynical manipulations of uncaring elements within society.

However, the political power of the transsexual community will remain fragmented and ignored.

Unless we all come out.

Come out from within the Armed Services. Come out from the relative security of the gay community. Come out from corporate America, the universities and athletic teams, the police and fire departments, the everyday jobs of working America and the quiet family homes in suburbia.

Make a difference.

Come out.

Tell our story. Demand acceptance, medical treatment, and just legal protection. Tell your families, friends, caregivers, legal authorities, and the scientific community, as well as all other interested parties.

Let the world know we are here and are not going away. This is not separatism: it is a demand for true inclusion based on mutual respect and recognition of the special needs of people born with HBS.

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

Let us rightfully claim Pride in who we are, and what we have to share. There is much to come as we listen to ourselves, find our voices, and tell our stories.

TS-Si.org Editorials convey the official positions of our organization, TS-Si. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of TS-Si authors, partners, or affiliates. Signed articles by our contributing authors or referenced news sources do not constitute official policy. We welcome your comments. You can use the public form below or send private correspondence via the TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.

The TS-Si News Service is a collaborative effort by TS-Si.org editors, contributors, and corresponding institutions. The sources can include the cited individuals and organizations, as well as TS-Si.org staff contributions. Articles and news reports do not necessarily convey official positions of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates.

We welcome your comments. Use the form below to leave a public comment or send private correspondence via the TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.

TS-Si is dedicated to the acceptance, medical treatment, and legal protection of individuals correcting the misalignment of their brains and their anatomical sex, while supporting their transition into society as hormonally reconstituted and surgically corrected citizens.

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