By Kim Vi Sweetman
Elm Staff Writer
First of all, I would like to start by congratulating Maryland on passing their bill legalizing gay marriage! Huzzah! The bill will not actually take effect until January 2013, but considering how it failed in the past, this is progress.
Considering this joyful occasion and how sometimes America does demonstrate its ability to be a forward thinking country, it is sad to think that across the world there is someone living in fear because of who they are. In Indonesia, a transgender woman who used to look after President Barack Obama – then known as “Barry” – lives in a closet sized room, and pretends to be a man. Now, if you have any personal biases/prejudices against President Obama, I ask that you leave them in the toilet, as he is not the focus of this article.
A transgender person refers to someone whose gender identity, what sex they identify with, does not match their assigned gender. Assigned gender is what we perceive them to be: male, or female. Transsexual usually refers to and implies that the person has undergone surgery to change their sex, and that they are taking medication (hormones). A transvestite is someone who dresses as the opposite sex, usually with a sexual interest in it. This is different from the term “cross dresser,” someone who dresses in clothing of the opposite sex, but does not carry any sort of implication of a fetish. None of these carry particular connotations for sexual orientation, and sometimes even the usual terms we might use become skewed. Both males and females participate in all of the above. Now back to Indonesia.
Born a male named “Turdi,” Obama’s ex-nanny worked for the family as a male, and does not think that Obama ever knew she felt like a woman. Her father used to beat Turdi – who chose the name “Evie” because it “sounds sweet” – because his son was too much of a “sissy.” She even dropped out of school after the third grade because of bullying. Evie used to dress as a woman, and would leave the Obamas’ house at night dressed in drag, but quit after a particularly nasty raid in 1985.
Soldiers and security guards in the predominantly Muslim country would beat transgenders, and sometimes the beaten would end up dead. Did it matter to the soldiers? Well, the stigma is that if you are going to openly be a transgender person, then you are submitting yourself to the ridicule and beatings that will follow. So in 1985 after soldiers beat her friend Susi’s face in, broke Susi’s body and threw it in the sewer, Evie decided to go back to living as a man. Today Evie’s main solace comes from praying five times a day at her local mosque, and the fact that the little boy she used to look after is now the president of the United States of America.
If you are thinking something along the lines of, “It’s because they’re Muslim!” please also put that aside. Yes, religion plays a huge part in this story, but I would ask that you not narrow your vision to blaming just one. home of our lovely Washington College, there are Christian churches already.
Did you know that here in the Howard County of Maryland, they have had to pass laws allowing a transgender person to use whichever restroom they wish? A law, all over using the bathroom.