Dionne S.
she/her, United States of America, woman of trans experience, Black, disabled
(FROM AN INTERVIEW CONDUCTED OVER ZOOM IN 2020)
Dionne S. (she/he)
I am a woman, a wife, a teacher, a cinephile. A lover of good music, food, and drink. An amateur scientist and detective. A seeker of truth, all truth, in the hope of understanding as much as I can about my part in the universal destiny.
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My trans experience has meant a chance to discover who I am and embrace the totality of it.
What comes through a prism are many components to it, many colors. When we look at light through a prism, we see some of its components. But we don’t see all of them. Because our ability to see the spectrum, to see beyond the colors the prism breaks down for us, is curtailed by the nature of our existence, whereas there are some creatures who can see beyond the traditional spectrum.
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When you throw a rock in a pond, the ripple starts in one spot but as it moves out into the field, the effects get bigger and bigger.
The power structures of our society support false and overly simplistic binaries. Most people don’t believe that we are all interconnected, but we are. We may not see all the connections. Nonetheless, they are there, as we are all finding out. The pandemic, global warming, extinctions—all these things are much more than ripples in a pond.
I think, eventually, when people surrender to interconnectedness, then the totality of human experience will manifest itself much more positively. As they say, a rising tide lifts all boats. Then, much human suffering will be eliminated, and we will learn how to value all life. There will be no endangered species, because we’ll know that as they exist, so do we—and when they start to go, we’ll go.
I wish I believed this large-scale transformation would be possible in 100 years. 100 years seems like a lot of time, but in the well of eternity it’s not even a drop. Change of this sort tends to go beyond centuries, more like millennia. Even then, it may only be partial.
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The question of utopia is probably the most difficult question in this entire exercise for me.
There is so much unnecessary, avoidable suffering, but the Powers That Be seem to like that. And to a certain degree, we tend to embrace the idea that it is our role to suffer and exist in this pain/ridiculousness.
But if I had to create a world where I'd like to live, there would be no want. Every life would be recognized to have value, regardless of differences. (I wish our differences would have as much importance as our similarities.) Everyone would find a place that would encourage their creativity, imagination, and ingenuity—to contribute to the whole of humankind (or all light). I wish every soul could experience a place to live, a home, and a lasting love. Lastly, all diseases would be eliminated.
And there would be no violence or hatred. Why do people hate? People hate because of lack or because they're made to feel less than. Or because their differences either make them unlovable or convince them that they can't contribute. So why would anybody hate if there's nothing to want and if all people, all life, were recognized to have value? There would be no reason to employ violence, to make someone submit. It's nonsense, so it wouldn’t exist.
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When I first started transition, the internet was a vastly unpopulated space. I thought I would find more camaraderie there. That it would take away every form of discrimination and oppression that existed in the cis straight space. But it was petty: women’s/men’s spaces excluded disabled populations, and so on. Although there have been great strides in eliminating these types of views, there remains quite a lot of work for us to do.
Here's an example from the formation of GenderPAC. They did not want to provide sign language translators—I don’t even want to tell you how many times. My Blackness was an issue for most of my time. Physically able activists condescended to me. I had my integrity questioned. I was dismissed, talked over, just blocked out altogether. Just too many examples. Too many.
All of us manifest some type of privilege. Once we become aware—not of the fact of our privilege, but of the fact of other people who don’t have it—there will be less infighting and more constructive work.
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I’ve said before that LGB people are children of the rainbow, and gender-variant people are children of the prism. We are crystals by which all of them have become visible.
We are not a new phenomenon. Gender variance exists in the entirety of human history, in every country, every society, every civilization.
To people reading this: understand that we are as natural as air. And as much as most would look to separate themselves from us, they are us as much as we are them.
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The only way to have freedom of the press is to own the press.
Our destiny lies in the freedom to define the totality of who we are, exclusively, not by any other group’s definitions or rules.
I believe people group us with the LGBTQ+ as if we're equal partners in that acronym. We are not equal partners. We even have distinctly separate needs.
Once we decide we will not be relegated to a paradigm that does not treat us as equal partners, and take the impetus to define ourselves, say what we want, and go the hell out and get it—that’s when we will own the press, that's when we will truly be free.
And sons of bitches will respect us.
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All my principles, ideals, and concepts about life, politics, and relationships came from what I loved in pop culture.
And I would say the totality of what I learned can be condensed into one phrase: One person can make a difference.
