2008 Woodie Awards
The roaring sound of silence
Amy Weston
Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: Opinions
Wake up. Wake up. Here's a story for you: When I was seventeen, I was walking home from school. I was jumped by three boys about my age, who proceeded to beat me until I could barely walk. As I lay there bleeding on the pavement, two of the boys hoisted me up by my shoulders while their friend-snarling and screaming in my ear-unzipped his pants. I felt my body go limp with dread. And then they stopped. They dropped me, kicked me for good measure, and ran off.
Why am I telling you this story? Because you are the ones who allow this to happen. This is reality for so many of your gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, cross-dressing, intersexed, gender queer, and questioning peers, yet knowing that fact somehow doesn't move you to action. It's "Pride Week" at Colby College. This is a week when the small group of people who call ourselves Colby's queer community get to pretend that Colby is a safe, accepting place to be out of the closet. I hate to break the news to you all, but Colby is the biggest closet I have ever walked into, and it's time that people start acknowledging that fact outside of The Bridge.
I am a T-girl, and because of this I have been threatened, harassed and beaten; I have had an aunt and uncle remove themselves from my family; I have been denied the right to share a one-room double with another female student, denied the right to give blood, and denied the right to accurate gender representation on my passport, my driver's license and my social security papers; and I have felt the shock of having a friend murdered minutes after my last conversation with her. And I blame people-not society-because people are the ones who do these things. I blame the Father in my family's church for teaching my uncle that I was an abomination. I blame every high school boy who feels they need to teach the fags and the trannies a lesson in pain. I blame the doctors who turn us away from hospitals when we are desperately ill. I blame the school administrators who are afraid of letting me share a room with another girl. I blame the cops who called the murders of my friends accidents because somewhere in their upbringing they were taught that transsexuals are criminals and we deserve what we get. But most of all I blame you, all of the enablers who sit idly by while this is happening around you and you do nothing. You say, "I have gay friends, they throw great parties," or "Have you heard about the pregnant man?" But you stop there, you are accepting of queers only so long as we don't have any problems and we don't need any support.
Why am I telling you this story? Because you are the ones who allow this to happen. This is reality for so many of your gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, cross-dressing, intersexed, gender queer, and questioning peers, yet knowing that fact somehow doesn't move you to action. It's "Pride Week" at Colby College. This is a week when the small group of people who call ourselves Colby's queer community get to pretend that Colby is a safe, accepting place to be out of the closet. I hate to break the news to you all, but Colby is the biggest closet I have ever walked into, and it's time that people start acknowledging that fact outside of The Bridge.
I am a T-girl, and because of this I have been threatened, harassed and beaten; I have had an aunt and uncle remove themselves from my family; I have been denied the right to share a one-room double with another female student, denied the right to give blood, and denied the right to accurate gender representation on my passport, my driver's license and my social security papers; and I have felt the shock of having a friend murdered minutes after my last conversation with her. And I blame people-not society-because people are the ones who do these things. I blame the Father in my family's church for teaching my uncle that I was an abomination. I blame every high school boy who feels they need to teach the fags and the trannies a lesson in pain. I blame the doctors who turn us away from hospitals when we are desperately ill. I blame the school administrators who are afraid of letting me share a room with another girl. I blame the cops who called the murders of my friends accidents because somewhere in their upbringing they were taught that transsexuals are criminals and we deserve what we get. But most of all I blame you, all of the enablers who sit idly by while this is happening around you and you do nothing. You say, "I have gay friends, they throw great parties," or "Have you heard about the pregnant man?" But you stop there, you are accepting of queers only so long as we don't have any problems and we don't need any support.
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