Trans Universe

By Monica F. Helms

I have this wonderful part of my being that I like to pull out and play with every so often. Okay. I suppose that sentence could have been written differently. I am referring to my “imagination.” My imagination has play tricks on me quite often, but then I get many chances to tame it with the wave of my typing fingers. This happens to be one of those times.

On June 28, 1969, at about 3 AM EDT, one of the most pivotal events in LGBT history took place in front of the Stonewall Inn on Christopher St. in Greenwich Village. Like a super nova, the explosion that happened that morning expanded rapidly outward to engulf the entire planet with the sounds of millions clamoring for their equality and freedom. The events from that moment in time have continued to expand even today, 40 years later.

But, I have to ask the one most important question that hides within my imagination, waiting for the next time to appear. “What if?” Countless fiction writers have made a comfortable living asking those two famous words. So, I ask the question with the qualifying words that allow this piece of writing to continue. “What if the trans people at the Stonewall Inn that night did not have the guts to start the riots?”

(Break)

Just to be fair and more realistic, the extreme direction I plan on going with this would be the least likely scenario. However, since this is MY imagination at work here, then I can go there. We all can agree that if the Stonewall Riots didn’t happen that night, they would have taken place at another bar, at another part of town, or in another city. It may have even been just a few day later, of a few years later, but it would have happened. Oppression cannot stay the norm forever.

In my alternate universe, oppression has not only remained on LGBT people for the last forty years, but has become completely institutionalized. The methods to oppress people in the novel “1984” by George Orwell would be child’s play in this 2009. Concentrating LGBT people in gulags or ghettos has been suggested hundreds of times in the last 40 years, but the specter of what happened during WWII keeps that from becoming a reality. However, that doesn’t keep oppression from continuing.

In this oppressive alternative universe of 2009, no laws on the books exists to protect the employment of any LGBT person in any state. Crimes against LGBT people never get prosecuted and no lawyer would touch them in fear of being disbarred. No “gay” organization exists, either locally or nationally, because the average wages for all LGBT people sits far below the poverty level, so those organizations could not materialized because of the lack of money.

Same sex marriage does not exist, because all LGBT people are more concern with putting food on the table and having a roof over their heads then wanting to get married. The few jobs “gay” people take fill the service industry and don’t pay very well. LGBT people cannot play the lottery, to prevent them from getting too much money. They get denied health care and the average life expectancy for LGBT people is 45.

The government funded a program to isolate the “gay gene,” making it easier to determine who to discriminate against. No LGBT web sites or blogs exists, unless it has to do with porn. “Gay” porn stars become the richest in the community, next to prostitutes. Ellen and Rosie would not have become famous, “Will and Grace” would never have happened, the Logo Network could not exist, “Brokeback Mountain” could never have been made and the Rainbow flag would be unheard of.

The closet would become a huge and lonely place. All of us would live there and our circle of gay friends would be very tiny. Underground news papers and secret E-mail societies would exist, but getting onto them would be next to impossible. Code words would be used and certain ways to dress would also be used, to give a hint to others of who we are.

As much as it would be a horrible world for gay, lesbian and bisexual people, trans people would have it worse. Surgery in any way related to changing one’s appearance from birth would be banned. Doctors in other countries would perform the surgery, but they would have to do it much like abortions had to be done before they became legal. The money could be acquired by living a straight life, then quickly vanishing so no one ever saw you again. Stealth would be the norm, but too many would die from black market hormones because no doctor would monitor their medical progress. And, changing one’s documents? Fergitaboutit. Murder and suicide would be the most likely cause of death amongst trans people in America.

Too many factors in reality exist to have ever made that world possible. Without Stonewall or any event like it, LGBT people would have still made progress over the years. Stonewall did not make all of the wonderful things we have today – or will soon get – possible, as much as the lack of it would have made my fictional world possible. Stonewall has its place in our history, as do many other wonderful things, but we are the sum of our parts and the legacy of those who came before us.

Stonewall did do some things for us. It made us aware. It gave us a united voice. It put LGBT people and our rights on the front burner. It gave us the first sign of light in a world of darkness. We have to work hard and continue to work together, or that 40-year-old light could be extinguished. I don’t want that to happen.