It takes courage to save lives.

     In the past 3 months, our country has taken monumental steps towards the future. Bruce Jenner, an American icon for winning the men's decathlon in the 1976 Summer Olympics, announced he was in fact a woman. Laverne Cox, a wildly talented actor who is also transgender, made the cover of Time Magazine. Bruce came out as Caitlyn Jenner and made her official debut on the cover of Vanity Fair. Barack Obama acknowledged the transgender community in his 2015 State of the Union Address. Same sex marriage became legal in all 50 states. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights act of 1964 included the LGBT community in protection against discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Aydian Dowling, a FTM transgender bodybuilder is in the final running to be on the cover of Men's Health for the month of November. Next year, transgender Americans will be allowed to serve openly in the armed forces.
     Seeing this development within such a short amount of time gives me infinite amounts of hope for not only our society, but the world as a whole. I can honestly say even as a lesbian who has been openly living for over a decade now, I did not expect to see this kind of progress so soon in my life, which is absurd seeing how it's 2015. Even Jeb Bush no longer believes LGBT people should be discriminated against in employment in housing. Times are changing. We are evolving as a country. We are evolving as humans. No matter what side of the political or spiritual fence you personally stand on, this fact is undeniable.
     While I wholeheartedly believe in the freedom America has given its citizens to live their own truths, speak their own thoughts and pray to whichever higher power they so choose, I do not see the benefit of spreading hatred. I've read a handful of articles, posts and blogs with varying arguments on the opposition of Caitlyn Jenner receiving the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. In one I found particularly disturbing, comedian D.L. Hughley stated Caitlyn was unfairly chosen because she "put on a dress" as if Bruce Jenner showed up to the ESPYs as Madea.
     This brings to mind a conversation I had with my mother a few years after I came out to all my family and friends. We were speaking about my thoughts on marriage as well as having children in the future and she asked very hesitantly if I ever considered transitioning into a male. This question did not offend me considering I had dressed masculine the majority of my life, but it did catch me off guard causing me to burst out into laughter. I assured her I was 100 percent satisfied with being a female. Today I have evolved enough to understand clothes are clothes. I feel comfortable in both men's and women's apparel. Are there some I stay away from? Absolutely, on both ends of the spectrum, but they do not define who I am or that I am a strong woman who loves to love other women.
     In saying this, I have only personally known two transgender people, one MTF after transitioning and the other FTM both before and after transitioning. I do not know what it is like to feel trapped in the wrong body, but I can say from my conversations with these two individuals and literally watching one become the person they feel on the inside, they do not go through all this trouble just because they want to. Transgender people feel the need to be the opposite of what they were physically born as. I think this is something that gets lost when speaking about these individuals who are just as human as the rest of us. Can you imagine waking up every single day knowing you can't live your life the way you were meant to because your body doesn't correspond to how you feel inside? This is the important question here.
    My psychology/sociology teacher in high school, Frank Campagne, who also became the sponsor of our Gay Straight Alliance, taught me something extremely valuable that I have found myself applying throughout various points in my life. He told us there are three steps to integrating concepts, beliefs, cultures, lifestyles, etc. into society. The first is Tolerance. In this instance, tolerance would occur when someone like Hughley can recognize a transgender person for existing as they are even though it is against what he personally believes in without voicing any bigotry towards the subject. The second is Acceptance. Moving from tolerance to acceptance is the shift in approval from these individuals who originally opposed the idea. Last is Understanding. This is of course the hardest of the three even for those who are completely accepting of differences. Understanding is being able to relate, which can be hard for those who have no concept of what it's like to be trapped in the wrong body.
     For those of you out there who think Caitlyn Jenner did not deserve the Arthur Ashe Courage Award because she did not exemplify the definition of courage, I urge you to listen to Abby Wombach's introduction along with Caitlyn's speech. Albeit long, this segment provided extremely important information to the public and was vital to the beginning baby steps of tolerance in our country for the transgender community. 20 percent of transgender individuals are homeless at one point in their life and 41 percent have attempted suicide. These statistics are both staggering and heart wrenching. How can we as good-natured humans deny the existence of any other human? How can we ridicule these people for their need to feel whole? Caitlyn said she thinks she may have found her life's calling by having the platform to bring this information to the masses while her mother, Ester, sat in the crowd beaming with pride for her child. Ester Jenner is 88 years old and has nothing but love for her now 65-year-old daughter. If that's not love in the purest form, I don't know what is. No matter what your opinion is on transgender people or Caitlyn accepting that award, she saved lives by being on that stage and she will continue to do so as she proceeds with her life's work to bring awareness to the less informed areas of the world.
     The media now relies on gossip and judgment to fuel entertainment, constantly chomping at the bit for the next big story. It is our responsibility as living, breathing creatures who need love and compassion to survive to know when enough is enough. Attacking one's personal life and how they live it is not only demoralizing to the recipient, but also internally damaging to the intolerant voice begging to be heard. I am most certainly guilty of judgment, but I consciously try my hardest to always stay objective. I do not wish to change anyone's perception of how they view the world around them, but I do ask that we all take more time to educate ourselves on things we know little to nothing about. There are far too many negative things in the world happening today for us to start turning our backs on one another. I change a little bit every day. We can always learn more and it's definitely never too late to start being kind.