I Chose to Ignore Hate...Because I am Transgender Female

I was eating at a restaurant the other day with my girlfriends from work. I never told them what happened to me when I went up to get my food. 

As I approached the main counter, a man crossed my path and said:

"Disgusting, it's just disgusting"

Looking at me and to me he was saying this terrible comment. 

I, chose to ignore it. Here is a lesson that really works. People who are bigots, aren't all that intelligent. So if you act like you never heard it at all and are seemingly oblivious to the comment, it looses its power. The words are still evil and wrong, but the person saying them, has no gratification in seeing your reaction.

Ok, before you credit me far too much, later, another man with his daughter were starring at me. The man pointed at me too and got his daughter to look at me. I was kind of tired after the first guy's comment. I finally had enough! When we all stood to leave, I said in a loud voice and across the room:

Look, you need to stop looking at me!

My eyes met his and he knew this girl meant business. He looked away. We left and I was proud of myself for One: Ignoring the first idiot and not telling my girlfriends about it. Two: Then standing up for my rights in a strong way and my girlfriends did see it.

Sometimes people think I am over reacting. One person I know never believes me when I say someone looked or said this or that. They just argue or blow it off as if I was making it up. That bothers me, but whatever. I know almost 99% of it is in fact true. Sometimes, I am wrong, but not most times. You have to live my life and then tell me I'm off. Any Trans person will tell you that you have no idea at how prejudice the world can be when you are kind of guy looking and in transition. People come right up to you or pass by and say things.

I guess discretion is the rule. Smiling is a great way to stop hate. Being kind is a awesome way to defang a hater. Sometimes, though if you cannot ignore an idiot, you have to stand up and tell them to stop.

Jenny - My two cents worth