Well done Daelynn. Thank you.

I try to remember that the person making the transphobic joke is doing it from a sense of fear, “whistling past the graveyard”, so to speak.

We make jokes about things that we are afraid of. We do this to literally, “belittle them.”

Making things appear smaller and less fearsome gives us some comfort, and serves as a signal to others that we are not afraid of …whatever it is that we’re joking about. Which, to the discerning person, signals that we are, indeed, afraid of the thing in question.

The vast majority of people have, deeply ingrained in them, an overarching Fear of straying outside their assigned gender presentation.

The “rules” of how to present ourselves to society are taught to us, from birth, by nearly everything we see and hear.

The consequences of straying outside of the prescribed behavior are met by ridicule, at best, murder,at worst.

With every moment of our lives filled with the reinforcement of the Patriarchal Dominance Hierarchy’s Gender Binary and hetero-normative sexuality dictates, we are “programmed” with 'this, then this' responses.

I try to remember that, at the deepest level, so deep that they are rarely consciously aware of it, they are reacting to Fear. That Fear, all too often is reacted to with humor meant to take the fearsome thing “down, a notch or two”. If that’s not sufficient to alleviate the fear, a violent, or “fight” reaction to the fear may take over.

The Patriarchal Dominance Hierarchy’s societal norms, having been around for a very long time, are indeed monolithic and agonizingly slow to change.

It warms my heart and gives me hope that these inequities, these deep fears, are being addressed openly.

I’m no longer setting myself up for disappointment by expecting it to get better quickly. But I remain hopeful.

My main focus is to live each day, each moment, well, being my own best friend, and of benifit to all living beings.

That strongly depends on understanding the roots of disrespectful behavior.

This approach enables me view, and respond to, people with compassion.

I strive, practicing every day, to maintain this view, making it habit, as deeply ingrained as their Fear.

As I continue to practice, it gets better, in small increments.

I can only control myself.

--weezi--💜🙏🏼🦄🥳🎉🥰