hi
I find political correctness about as logical as we will not do something because it would offend others and we would not want to do that ? I do what is right in my heart and for political correctness ... it has no place in society and this is my deeply held position. Also for those in my subculture who seek special entitlements from society because we have been wronged for so many years I say this .... if you assign me a special status you have discriminated against others and to me that is a mortal sin. I don't want special privileges just equality nothing more nothing less. I am anything but politically correct.
I have been struggling with when to come out and publicly talk about my political views. I know the two words conservative and transsexual in our society are about as logical to some people as "let me get this straight you are transsexual and a lesbian." Putting people in a box, especially me, is a mistake.
my political views vary from conservative to liberal but I would categorize myself as a progressive conservative. The women I have surround myself in my journey have very similar views and most are also very spiritual like myself. we are strong willed women who hold our values and standards very high and do not violate them. Also if you are our friends we will hold you up and do what we can to help each other. The one thing the women around will never do is enable me. this is the major reason I have had so much success on estrogen in just 18 mos as of feb 4th.
where did I get my prospectives? I could not figure this out for years and years until recently. The answer was so close to me I could not see it "despite my face." The woman that had the most impact in my life was my grandmother. She was born in 1909 and we had deep conversations for decades. Looking back we rarely disagreed but when we did we both would respect each other's prospective but we were firm in our beliefs. We would rather die than compromise our values and beliefs.
So when I speak I have over 35 years of experience of having deep conversations with no filters on and haven spoken with my heart for nearly 4 decades. To me the speeches are just an extension of my conversations with my grandmother. However my gender is front and center but the reality of my speeches is that the core is the healing of the soul and very little to do with transsexual or whatever politically correct term you would like to assign to me.
In reality I don't like the term transsexual or transgender because it infers I am not woman enough. A very smart woman said to me once, "who get to define who or what a woman is?" I am woman no more or less than any other woman. to take it a step further a man I know well once said to me, " ...it is a birth defect." I was surprised a male really understands this disease. they are both right and I am a woman despite the label society wants to assign me.
In closing,
I dearly miss my grandmother and it took me so long to realize the impact she was in my life. When I spoke at the va regional conference last february it was a natural progression of conversations but my gender was front and center. I spoke from the heart and soul of a woman. we as women open our hearts and souls up and are vulnerable which creates an advantage in sales according to zig ziglar. for decades people trusted me without exception including strangers.
Hormones has been a blessing from god but in wrong hands could be deadly. if you cannot confront your deepest demons I can see how it could create more depression and possibly end up in destructive behaviors. thank god my life has done a 180 and I am becoming a leader in society and the experiment with hormones has been a success.
thank you grandma from the bottom of my heart,
Rachel Reid
ps would she have accepted rachel .... i really don't know but she loved me and that was so important to me and was my rock who I ran to often
