Skrrrrrrr. The train comes to a complete stop and a cluster of people gather around the door to enter, myself included. The train is empty except for one man standing, walking cart to cart while holding clear bottles full of perfume. I take a seat and increase the volume of my music to enter my own little world, as my chain dangles and dances around my neck. A couple years ago my mom married a muslim immigrant who shared his culture and beliefs with us, which lead me to find a new meaning in things. I began to share the same beliefs as him as he took me under his wing. As the years went by my family took a trip to Egypt, without me, to meet my step father’s family. They brought me back a necklace that says “God is one, Muhammad is a profit” to show a piece of my religion. I haven’t taken it off since the moment I got it.

The man enters my cart, eyeing the amount of “future customers”. He’s wearing white Air Force ones with nike sweats and a Kufi (an islamic prayer cap), we share something in common. I see that he is holding clear bottles of perfume, trying to sell them to an open customer. I put my head in my phone trying to avoid eye contact because I’m not interested in buying any perfume.  

Social media has had a big impact on the way I think about things. I’ve seen multiple posts on my timeline warning me about people trying to sell perfume, when you sniff the scent it causes you to pass out and allows the person selling it to kidnap you or you not be aware of your surroundings. This causes me to be alert at the sight of the man.

I bury my head in my phone avoiding all movements. I’m scrolling through my instagram feed and suddenly a blue tinted clear bottle gets put in front of my phone. My heart starts racing as I lower my music, take one earbud out and lift my head to make eye contact with the man.

He proceeds to make an argument on why I should invest in his perfume, I make eye contact but I’m not really listening. I then acknowledge the kufi on the man’s head and look down to make eyes at my chain hoping he realizes the sign. I raise my head to see if he has caught the sign I was trying to make and he did. He then places out his hand and greets me “As-salāmu ʿalaykum”. I shake his hand as I respond “alaykum as-salām”. He then leaves me and goes about selling his scents to other people as I put my earbuds back in and go back to my daily train ride.

Later in the day, while I’m daydreaming during class I think about what occurred on the train. It lead me to think that the man on the train only went away because we shared something in common, our religion. It lead me to believe that once he realized we were almost one of the same, he wasn’t interested in selling me his product but he was interested in protecting me from it.

I then started to think deeper, people take it upon themselves to figure out how you identify, white, black, muslim, asian, male, female, but who said that’s how you identify? I realized that the man on the train was eager to sell his product to me while I was looking like any other ordinary white boy on the train, but after seeing we shared a common belief his mind had changed. I believe people are more prone to protecting people that they share a common belief with, especially if what they believe in leads them to discrimination. Although it’s comforting to feel united, we associate ourselves with the ones we’re comfortable with, leaving the others to be on their own.

I have invested this past year in learning and writing about a controversial topic in America. I chose to explore transphobia.  If you are unaware of what that is, it is “intense dislike of or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people.” In my first essay Transphobia in America I wrote about the percentages of mistreatment and unequal treatment against transgender individuals. In my second essay Change Is Still Needed I interviewed two people, a transgender male and a doctor at CHOP (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) who educated transgender people on safe sex. I then explored the murder rate of transgender people.

Since my last article there hasn’t been any activism for transgender persons rights, but that doesn’t mean the fight is over. Although there has been no activism, there has been more deaths since my last essay (March 18th 2018). Only days later on March 26th 2018, Amia Tyrae Berryman was shot to death at the Shades Motel in Baton Rouge, LA at the age of 28. Sasha wall, 29 years old, was found shot to death in her vehicle in Chesterfield County, S.C on April 1st. Carla Patricia Flores, 18 years old, found strangled to death in her home in Dallas, Texas on May 9th. ALL transgender women of COLOR. The rate that transgender women are murdered is one of the highest in the country. Nino Fortson, 36 years old, transgender man found shot to death in Atlanta May 13th. These are just a few reported cases. Many are not even recorded.

Since there has been no activism fighting or educating anyone about the transgender people, I decided to go out and do it myself. Tuesday, March 6th I was on a panel in the Mutter Museum hosted by CHOP. I was accompanied by my mother and four other transgender males. We answered questions to feed their curiosity and to educate. Here is the panel I was on, fast forward to 1:11:00 if you want to see the panel part. I answered questions about my life and my visits at the hospital. I decided to go about my activism this way because I am offered to do things like this all the time, of course I accept. So I figured I can use these opportunities to educate.

Throughout my year of doing this project I learned more about myself and community. My community is at danger and nothing has been done about it. No acknowledgment from law enforcement, no help just “thoughts” and “prayers.” Those are nice, but they don’t help the people in need. I learned more about myself than ever, I need to start being more open minded and exploring topics that I usually don’t. It is up to my generation and I to right the wrongs everyone has made.

If you have been following my recent posts about Transphobia you can tell that I have a strong passion against hate crimes and the rate that hate crimes occur against transgender people. Hate crimes towards transgender individuals has gone up by 300 since January of 2016. There have been 24 transgender people killed since the beginning of 2017. In the process of learning about Transgender hate crimes and experiences, I decided to go out and interview two people. One, who deals with transgender patients when teaching them about safe sex. The second person is a transgender male who came out at an older age. I interviewed him about his life and struggles as a trans person. He then proceeded to tell me about the hate he received from his own family after coming out and how isolated he was for years.

For privacy reasons we will call this trans individual John. John then told me he was kicked out of his home at the age of 16 and lost all communication with his parents for years. The only person he had contact with was his sister.

He was homeless for several years and had to provide for himself. In my latest research 40% of LGBTQ youth are homelss and John was apart of the 40%. Throughout my years of knowing John I would have never expected such a painful story from him because of the way he presents himself. This is a first hand experience showing to never assume things about people and their story.

To further my research I interviewed a worker at Children’s Hospital Of Philadelphia, Yexsy Alicea . His job is to educate trans youth on safe sex. He deals with a lot of patients whose parents are unsupportive and leave them to educate themselves on how to support their lifestyle. He talked about the amount of stress his transgender patients have in using public restrooms. All the hype in the media about what restrooms trans people can use has caused a restraint on them actually using the bathroom. 59% of transgender people avoid using public bathroom and there is approximately 1.4 million transgender people in the United States. In 2016 a survey in New York went around that 27,715 people answered.

It founded that 12% of transgender people have been verbally abused, 1% physically attacked and 1% were sexually assaulted in the restroom. After this survey was taken North Carolina passed a Bill which forces transgender individuals to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender at birth. North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory said this Bill was necessary to “protect our children” and “preserve traditional values.”

Transphobia is still existent in the United States. Throughout my research of Transphobia I find that despite the growth of mindset in the United States toward the LGBTQ community, statistics prove that there is still need for improvement. Therefore, I believe that we must continue our efforts to overcome transphobia in the United States.

A sensitive social issue in America is Transphobia. For clarification Transphobia is “intense dislike of or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people” by word of the dictionary. My goal in learning about this topic is to educate myself about a community I am surrounded by. The reason I leached to this social issue is because I am a Transgender male. I find this topic underrated and I want to open it up to the world more. Although my topic is centered to a specific group of people, it connects everyone in a different way. These people are apart of family, have friends, are someone’s coworker or partner. Events that occur to trans people effect others lives and emotions.

Ever since the precidency of Donald Trump sprung on the United States, hate towards groups of individuals has become more exposed due to the bravery our presdient gives to people who spill hate speech. In 2016 after Trump was elected the rate of hate crimes went up by 300. Since January 2017 at least twenty-five transgender individuals have been killed, 80% are transgender people of color, the most ever reported. The Trump administration has continued to put public attacks on the transgender community including his attempt to ban transgender people from the military.

The first reported transgender death of 2017 was on January 4th, Mesha Caldwell was a fourty-four year old African American woman who was a hair and makeup artist. She was shot to her death on a Mississippi road. Her murder is still being investigated to this very day but this is seems to be a trend among the other twenty-four deaths that have occured since 2017. Since the beginning of 2018 at least four trangender people have been shot or killed by any other violent means.  There is 1.6 million to 2.8 million homeless youth in the United states, twenty to forty precent of those children are trangender youth. More than 1 in 10 trandgender people are evicted from their homes. When seeking for a homeless shelter most do not have LGBT friendly communities and supplies. 22% of homeless transgender people are assulted while staying at shelters. The ignorance to the community has been recognized and several people have made their own shelter specifically for LGBTQ people and if not they are open to making theirs LGBTQ friendly. For example, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has promoted and created educational rescources for serving LGBTQ youth.

Sexual abuse is a big factor in most LGBTQ people’s lives. 47% of transgender people are sexually assualted during some point in their life. One in two transgender people are sexaully abused or assulted. Transgender youth and Transgender people are color are more commonly sexually abused than anyone. 13% of African American transgender people are sexually assaulted in their work place.  

My research has impacted my thoughts on this social situation because I always knew hate crimes occured but I never thought about how frequently they occur. Social actions to handle this problem occur all the time, including, awareness on social media, protests and contributing at local activist centers. Hate crimes transpire every day but its up to the youth to set a path of equality and freedom of speech for the generation after us. It’s up to you if you take part.

annotated bibliography

I learned from my critiques that I needed to pick a lighter font for my words and to make my words bolder. Also that I need to add another thing onto my slide so that it doesn’t look so dry. So I chose to add a bitmoji of my dog and I to go with my central idea of my dog (family). I learned that short sentences or a low amount of words will make it easier for a person to read your slide and that light eye catching words attract more eyes than dark colored words and everyone loves dogs so the picture of the dog and bitmoji will draw more eyes.

Link I used this document to learn about the color I should use for my text.

Another link I used this link to show me that shape is a major key which is why everything on my slide is big or bolded.