My Prayer

My wish for the future, a Prayer for Hope, Peace and Acceptance

These are a few of the thoughts I’ve had over a long time. They contain a little bit of my whimsy, but the wish within and the desire for all of you is true, particularly now for people of all race and colour.

You may feel as if this is the way some people wish, offering prayers for world peace, though I think we are closer to my whimsical goal than we are at attaining world peace!

I’m talking about the simple right to be yourself, to live your life as you choose to. This is still not universal; some areas are more advanced than others are, but there is much more that needs to be done everywhere.

We have come so far in the last 20, 40, even 75 years with respect to human rights, particularly when it comes to people who lead, or wish to lead what’s now called a non-binary lifestyle. This is truer in the Western world than in other areas; where the folks who find themselves inexorably drawn to a gay, lesbian, or transgender lifestyle can do so, and do it more openly than ever before. This is not a lifestyle choice, but something that is hardwired into our being.

In the past, when a woman became pregnant it was to be hidden away. Here in Canada, one large employer would move women away from dealing with customers as soon as they started to show some tummy; this was in the mid 80’s. Changing attitudes takes time, education, and the willingness to respect the person whoever they are. Race, colour, and sexual preferences are irrelevant. We are all people of this Earth.

In my short time on this world and in my country of birth, Canada, I have seen great strides in gender equality. When I was still a teenager it was a crime to be caught in a same sex relationship, and it was punishable by imprisonment with a lasting record of such. Plus… the treatment to cure one of this so called disease is what we now call cruel and unusual punishment.
Forty years later same sex marriages became legal, which caused perhaps as much controversy as de criminalizing same sex relationships did then. Certainly it was not universally regarded as the right thing to do.

But I digress here. I have seen strides in acceptance and understanding, but the lifestyle that we wish to live is still fraught with shame, guilt, and misunderstanding. Who can explain this to another anyway when we can’t even explain it to ourselves? Many of us start out hiding ourselves away, closeted, sometimes only for a short time as others may for decades until their feminine side finally becomes so insistent they can no longer hold her back. The problem in that respect is that by then most of us have well established male personas, families, jobs, careers, friends and other interests, which seem to be at odds to us showing up for work in a dress. A few workplaces here will now permit this, but most don’t and aren’t comfortable with it.

My prayer for the future is so simple; that we may just present and dress ourselves the way we choose to and find complete acceptance. In that men can look like men one day, and then dress as women the next, or simply present as a woman all of the time, and to be treated as there isn’t something wrong with them.

So many things need to change for this to become a reality, and I think education is the most important thing in helping us to reach that point.