Journal migration

2006-03-11T19:07:50Z

Hi Folks. This is just a note to let you know that this journal is migrating. I want to keep Testimonials easier to find and administer, so it's the only post remaining on this journal.

Please check out ochast for all my recent and future writings, plus some older things I'm only now posting publicly. As a shameless plug, I'd love it if you updated your friends page so I can keep my regular readers :)

Thanks,
Michael

Testimonial

2005-02-01T22:37:43Z

EDIT: This post is getting widely known....which means that some trolls have found it, too. I am not at my computer often enough to catch them all, so be warned that there may be some nasty comments posted just to get our goat.
Please don't feed the trolls; it only encourages them.
Also, feel free to link widely to this post -- non-LJ users can post here too. I discourage reproducing my post b/c the many comments are really the heart and soul of it, but if you do please observe the Creative Commons License.

Sometimes I wish people could see the faces of everyone who is hurt by the discrimination and violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity. I would like to break down the “safe” abstract position they have when preaching about “the homosexual agenda” and “family values” and whatnot, and simply show them the all-too-human suffering that touches so many people.

I am the student afraid to go back to school. The teasing and shouting “Kill the faggot!” has gotten worse, and none of the teachers are doing anything about it.

I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.

I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.

I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.

We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.

I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.

I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.

I am one of the lucky ones, I guess. I survived the attack that left me in a coma for three weeks, and in another year I will probably be able to walk again.

I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.

We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.

I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.

I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.

I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.

I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.

I am the man who died when the paramedics stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.

I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I didn’t have to always deal with society hating me.

Michael Ochast

Journal migration

Testimonial