Being queer or trans in the holiday season

Exclusion is unacceptable. I appreciate learning more as things can become complicated and confusing. Any type of behavior that is not accepted can result is being mistreated. Sad but true.

Hi @gingerw thanks for your kindness and openness as always. So, to refer to me, you can say "your name is Ayesha" instead of "their name is Ayesha." Just like you would speak about anyone directly. Then, if you're speaking about me to @lisalucier, you can say "Ayesha lives in South Africa. Did you know they live that far away?"

Lol. I had fun with that. Hopefully that makes more sense. Basically, "they" is just a replacement for "he" or "she" but not for any other pronouns like "we," "us," "you," etc.

It's as if you don't know someone's name or gender (like if you know I have a sibling but don't know any more info than that) and you ask me, "Oh, how old are they? What's their name?"

@lisalucier I asked him, "is that your job to be telling me how I should look?"
It was completely unprofessional and I could've reported him but I really didn't have enough time since I was catching a flight.

It may not be tasteful or respectful to some but I also have to have a sense of humor about it, cause it keeps me sane. I said, "and where are your inches?" (meaning his hair – he was bald)

@abida and @parus thank you for your valuable thoughts.

True love is indeed unconditional. A lot of the time, parents and guardians may be taught from religion and society that they need to take a stand against certain sins of humanity. This is often the way homosexuality and trans-ness (being transgender) is perceived in the southern U.S. for sure, as I know from growing up here. I appreciate the efforts of Christians, Muslims, and people of religions and spiritualities across the world in countering that popular, discriminatory belief system. It takes hard work to go against the grain to discern between what you were taught and what is the truth.