I attended our nation's first National Trans Visibility March for our community; our TGNC youth are looking for inspiration and role models.
Aryah Lester's blog
“I still have a dream,” said Martin Luther King, “it is deeply rooted in the American Dream.”
Over 150 years after its publication, multitudes of us face the same public stigma and degradation due to the diagnosis of HIV.
Mother, O Mother Where is the nurture of the lioness? The protection like the mother bear? Where is the light in the darkness? The shade of the ancient tree? Mother, O Mother I am haunted by their eyes His eyes: as the fire engulfed my head Her eyes: 'We’ll call you' His eyes: as I stared down the barrel Once. Twice. Thrice. Four Mother, O Mother The repressed self-hate as he Pressed against me, My hair in his balled fist My blood upon his member Once. Twice. Thrice. A dozen times The splashes of fire in the darkness of a club The hate spewed from the mouths of ignorance The sign of the cross...
I live in the basement: the lowest floor of the social systems we have here in America. Above me live the middle-class: not concerned with the trials of the lower class; the privileged: living in a bubble of supremacy; and the blessed: ignorant of truly fighting for acceptance into humanity. Proud and jubilant footsteps drum upon my ceiling from the house parties of the heterosexual, the men, those not of color, and even the LGB crowd. You see, I am a transgender woman of color, and my lot in life has been to continue striving towards access above the basement of this country: to fight not...
"I am a woman born on the soil of New York City, who entered her adolescence in the less-populated rural region of the state of Georgia. Such duplicity has been the standard of my life, being also transgender and a woman of color. I am an advocate and one of the affected.I am me and I am you." Aryah Lester is a national advocate, author, and public speaker. She is currently the Chairwoman of the state of Florida Health Department's transgender workgroup, working towards lower HIV infection rates statewide. Ms. Lester also sits on the advisory board for the National Alliance of State and...