November is Transgender Awareness Month

Happy November, everyone! While October was official LGBT History Month, this month I'm thrilled to announce a new partnership with One Colorado, where we'll be dedicating November to raising awareness around the transgender community. As we step into Transgender Awareness Month, my Examiner articles will highlight influential members of the statewide transgender community, resources for trans people and their friends, family and allies, and focus on the importance of inclusion of the transgender community within the larger gay, lesbian, bisexual and queer community. My goal, along with One Colorado, is to inform, educate, and empower readers to understand, empathize with and include trans people in their thoughts, work towards social justice, and daily queer and allied lives.

There are times I hear complaints about the "alphabet soup" of acronyms used to refer to the LGBTQA community. That's part of the reason I advocate use of the inclusive umbrella term "queer," though the phrase can be fraught with historic connotations. But the overriding message of using multi-letter acronyms is to communicate a sense of unity and inclusion among those of us who are discriminated against based upon our sexual orientation, gender identity, or in general based on who we love. We are strongest when we stand together, and only by cooperation and inclusion can we reach our shared dream of legal and social equality.

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