An Open Letter from Sylvia Guerrero urging acceptance of diversity
The time is now to make a difference. Our children must be supported to be who they are without fear of harrasment and bullying. We can change things, opening our minds to all the ways to be in this world is a start, empowering our children is the beginning of change. Change begins within each of us. When we are truly authentic to ourselves there is no need to judge or condemn others. Read Sylvia’s powerful words below and then ask yourself what can you do today to be more authentically you? Then go out and do it! Let these children’s deaths not be in vain, let it be a catalyst for change.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 4, 2010
CONTACT: Kristina Wertz, Legal Director, Transgender Law Center
PHONE: 415-865-0176
EMAIL:kristina@transgenderlawcenter.org
Sylvia Guerrero, Mother of Slain Teen Gwen Araujo, Addresses LGBT Youth Suicide
San Francisco – Today, on the eighth anniversary of her daughter’s murder, Sylvia Guerrero, mother of slain transgender teenager Gwen Araujo, released the following open letter addressing suicide and violence experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth:
Dear friends of the Transgender Law Center,
It is with a heavy heart that I write to you today. It has been eight years since my beautiful daughter Gwen Araujo was brutally killed because she was transgender. Gwen was the light of my life. She was taken from us at the young age of seventeen; she was a victim of a culture where people react with violence when faced with difference. It is this same culture that led to the suicides of at least six lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people in the last week.
My heart goes out to the families of these young people. I know what it is like to be the mother of a teenager who endured constant bullying. I cannot count the times that I held Gwen in my arms while she cried at the end of the school day. My Gwen was so smart. She could have grown up to be anything she wanted. But her opportunity was taken from her. Years of bullying forced her to stop going to school. She was harassed and threatened every day. At the time, I didn’t know that harassment based on gender identity and expression was against the law in California. My calls to the school went unanswered, and Continue reading »
Filed under LGBTQI Families | Tags: acceptance, courage, gender, GENDER NOW, lgbt, transgender | Comments (5)The Blessing of a Ban
This week we celebrate Banned Books Week. Banned books are insights into a culture’s deepest fears. They speak to what we’re trying not to face, what we’re in total denial of or what we feel we must suppress to maintain and protect the current order. Clearly these books hold power. For one, a book like this has become visible enough to be a problem and two, its contents are so powerful they must be controlled. These are books to pay attention to.
I imagine one day we will look back as a planet and be impressed with how limited our thinking was during this time. 
I imagine in this future day, we will generally think many more thoughts than we do now and we will feel completely free to do so. This is a natural future to me because in my imaginary world, thought and awareness always expand.
I have a professor friend I work with in Alabama. Last year during an interview I told him I didn’t think my new coloring book, Gender Now, would be banned despite the fact that it has naked children showing multiple gender expression. He said I should be so lucky to have my book banned. I laughed. Yesyes. I should be so lucky! Lucky enough for my book to join the list of those books that in their mere existence present the great opportunity for us to expand our minds to the point of freedom.
Here’s to all the banned books, the good, the bad, the brilliant and the brave. To you I show respect by happily falling through the dark, out of my clothes and into the dough of the night kitchen! In salutation of all those who have helped expand our minds…I play. I expand. I know. I am free.
And I sing into that night…You will never imprison my mind. (Gandhi)
About Banned Books Week: Banned Books Week is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than a thousand books have been challenged since 1982. More at: http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/
Filed under Events, General, LGBTQI Families | Tags: acceptance, ban, courage, gender, lgbt, library | Comment (0)On These Shoulders We Stand
Wow! Maya and I went to a free movie screening at the LGBT center in San Francisco yesterday for an absolutely awesome documentary called On These Shoulders We Stand. Lots of people know about Stonewall and Harvey Milk, but this film focused on the movement for LGBT equal rights that was growing in Los Angeles even before Stonewall. The film focused on 11 people who discussed their experiences during that time. It was amazing to hear not just about the discrimination, violence, and stress of the time, especially at the hands of police, but also about the incredible resilience, determination and undying pride that all of them possessed in overcoming such extreme and often what seemed liked hopeless situations. They truly are the people on whose shoulders we stand! They paved the way for others just by refusing to accept that they could not be themselves and love who they loved.
The film dealt a lot with the 1897 law that was adopted in response to Continue reading »
Filed under From the Life, LGBTQI Families | Tags: acceptance, courage, empowerment, films, history, lgbt, neighborhood | Comment (0)For the Love of Harvey…Unspeakable Joy!
Ghandi/October 2
Martin Luther King Jr./January 15
Cesar Chavez/March 31
Harvey Milk/May 22
These are special days. They are dedicated first to honor these individuals, their lives and their contribution to our world and our lives. Second, these days represent a call to learn and align ourselves with the spirit and intent of their work. We are each challenged to come forward and live it in our own way.
Ever since I was a child and well into adulthood, through stories my father told about Cesar, through the unforgettable words of Martin, and films about Ghandi and Harvey, I learned that while we may be disenfranchised within the dominant paradigm, we can be a peaceful, powerful and an undeniable presence for change. We are here. We belong. And yes! We, absolutely all of us, are powerful, beautiful, wise and worthy.
I have come to know this for myself in part because of the mere existence of these four people and the impact of their thought and work in the world. But how do I know about them? It is because of the specific attention given to them, the honor, the respect. I have learned their words and come to recognize their images in schools and libraries, public spaces and media. Through example they have taught me some of my most valuable lessons for being committed to my own true nature while living on this planet. They have honored me first. They have valued and reflected me in my worth. In my own much simpler way, I try to thank them and continue the flow of their beautiful intentions through my work, my life, my thoughts and words. They stand as my models.
This weekend, Matthew and I attended some of the events in our neighborhood for the first ever Harvey Milk Day. I say all the time how much Continue reading »
Filed under LGBTQI Families, Power of Reflection | Tags: celebration, courage, family, festive, fun, lgbt, reflection | Comment (0)Two Boys
There are moments that stand out when I visit schools. Moments that stick with me and become part of my stories. There are a number of kids through the years that have never left my side. I can see them still, remember our interactions. I imagine many must be grown up now and I wonder how they’re doing. They’re the ones that remind me the most of myself. Their lesson my lesson, my lesson their lesson. They reflect some aspect of my own experience although it’s not always obvious to me at first.
When I go into schools these days I don’t often get to work with the kids closely. Things are far more assembly oriented now, but any time there’s a chance I still try to make art with kids. Although now it’s not in a classroom but a cafeteria or library, and I’ve got 200 kids instead of 30. It’s definitely a different kind of interaction. But within the parameters I still try to get some of my message across and be fully present with the kids. I know there’s something I understand about being a kid and being stressed out on many different levels. Art served as a great tool for me as a stressed out kid and now I’m old enough to talk about it. What is important to share about art and creativity to me is how it can support kid’s understanding of how to use it as a tool. A tool to process their experiences, create personal reflection and know and empower themselves. When I do get to work with kids, the projects are geared to ground my philosophies which are rooted in my experience as a bi-racial, child of color dealing with a number of serious stressors.
I only have a few moments to provide an opportunity to use art like this so the projects have to be simple and fertile. In these assembly settings I have a current, favorite project. I ask the kids to draw a picture of their self. There are only two requirements. Completely forget you know what you look like and share something about yourself that I cannot see by looking at you. I ask them a few questions to explore what we cannot see when we look at someone. Can you tell who I love by looking at me? Can you tell what scares me? Makes me angry? Where I came from? In my imagination I have huge deer horns. I can feel them, can you see them? I tell them since they don’t know what they look like, they can Continue reading »
