Jake Finney (photo: LAGLC)
THE GUERRILLA ANGEL REPORT — Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance and I thought I’d share one of the better articles I’ve read about the slippery slope that leads to many transgender lives shortened, or a life in society’s gutter.
“When the LGBT community breeds transphobia, everyone gets left behind, and the scores of transgender women who are commemorated each year at the Transgender Day of Remembrance are proof”. — Jake Finney.
I have to agree with the Mr. Finney that many problems facing transgender people stem from within the larger LGBTQ community. For whatever reason, trans people are on the bottom rung. But all is not loss says the writer:
“Yet, while 41% of adult transgender people report to having attempted suicide at least once in their life, there is a great deal of resilience, determination, and perseverance, making transgender people the greatest warriors of all in the movement for LGBTQ equality.”
Read the entire article: Op-ed: The Harsh Reality of Some Transgender Lives | Commentary | The Advocate.
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From LGBT POV: “I [Jake Finney] am the manager the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s Anti-Violence Project. I provide advocacy and legal services for victims of anti-transgender discrimination and violence. In this role, and as past Vice-Chair for West Hollywood’s Transgender Advisory Board, I have become part of planning the Day of Remembrance.”
More: http://www.lgbtpov.com/2011/11/finney-transgender-day-of-remembrance-is-personal/
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Categories: Discrimination, Equality, Civil Rights, Transgender, Transsexual, Trans
LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS 
I agree that there is much transphobia within the LGBTQ community.
I disagree as to the source. We susceptible to the messages in the wider world around us – where do you thing that the internalized homophobia so many of us carry around comes from? Although not confronting (or, worse, perpetuating) transphobia is nothing to be proud of, I do not believe its origins are in the LGBTQ community – any more than I believe the anti-semitism that was rampant in the all black high school I taught at had its origins within that community.
Those of us who are oppressed are fighting among each other for the scraps thrown to us Part of those skirmishes, all too often, include the language and actions of our oppressors toward those perceived to be lower on the ladder than us. If we can shove someone else farther down, we will have first pick of the scraps for ourselves.
We do need to recognize it, and put an end to it, but blaming the LGBTQ community for being the origin is one more piece of fighting among each other for the scraps thrown us by our oppressors, and is also counterproductive.
Thanks for posting your views!