Minnesota is an interesting place with what appears to be plain, but are in fact interesting people. A bit Xenophobic for sure, yet, somehow at the same time they are progressive, accepting and consider themselves inclusive believers in equality. Even if this isn't true, it is good that they think themselves so because it results in a social fabric that even if fabricated does result in the blossoming of progressive ideas, and a legislative system that always intends to protect and never restrict individuals rights. There was a moment when I seriously considered returning to my beloved Georgia, and even received a couple of very promising job referrals. I sat with myself and had to weigh who I am with who I intend on becoming. I am Georgian, an Atalien, Southern and damn proud of it. I loved my life inside of Atlanta's perimeter, it really is my city. Even beyond those boarders from the Coast through the Piedmont to the Appalachian foothills whenever I am in Georgia I am always home. I almost yearn for hot humid 'April' Days that give way to even hotter humid Summer nights with the expectations of August's end being a momentary yield before a host of Indian Summers. I miss the sweet smell of Wisteria in second bloom more than I do the friends and lovers and adopted family that I left behind.
Yet, here I am living a Prairie life, toiling away through long nights in front of two monitors working to make the wealthy even more so.... It puzzles me too! Why not just give in and return to my beloved Georgia? I believe it is because once you have experienced first class citizenry it is next to impossible to return to a system that doesn't recognize you, or the rights that we are all entitled to as humans living in this our Great American Republic. After knowing that a 'state' can make health care affordable and available to everyone and still complete the fiscal year 825 million dollars in the Black makes returning to Georgia seem like living in a thriving democratic nation and then deciding to relocate to a 'conservative Islamic state. No offense intended to religious states, I just have no intention of living in one. Readers may think this is an unfair comparison, and it is true I may be in a bit of a hyperbolic space, but let us pause and consider. In Georgia there are no laws protecting me from being fired, evicted from my home, because of what it considers my non-gender status. In Georgia it is Constitutional mandate that my rights to marry and participate in the pursuits that we are all entitled to as Americans, to commit to another consenting adult with sincere domestic intentions of having a family, property, protection under the law and the other 1,400 plus privileges that are attached to the absolute secular institution of marriage are denied; and why? Religion. So it appears that we are not too far from that religious state that I referenced earlier are we..? hmmm... At least not from my Prairie home perspective (intentional play on words). Though forever grateful to the federal government for protecting me from stoning, and a bit of social advancement that has finally rid us of once accepted obscene and archaic sodomy laws, because all excepting the absolutely pious, whom I have yet to meet, are guilty of, or even better yet, who I let sodomize me in my private home isn't any one's business! I wonder how such laws were ever legislated? Non-the-less my point remains that it isn't enough, and we as the citizens of the potentially greatest nation in the history of Western civilization either affecting concern and outrage based on medieval religious values, or those that simply do nothing while watching the rights of others denied based on those medieval ideas is an affront to the very core and distinction of our supposed Great Republic founded on the democratic believe to which each of us is entitled absolute and inalienably.
So here I am a Southerner living in Upper-Mid-West exile so that I might be able to live with myself, no longer have to hide from myself. Concerning Georgia I am decided that the idea of valuing a family, a wife, a mortgage with sincere domestic intent could only be attained at the expense of my freedom of gender expression does not make sense to me, so i left. However available this option is to me what about the countless numbers of individuals marginalized without the options and privileges that I have been so very blessed to have? What about a little boy beaten to death for being too effeminate, or the transgender boy right now living in the deep south hiding from himself and from those people that declare that they love him. Or the Transgender girl that even if she could come out would live in constant fear of losing her job, or face no recourse, resources, or rights to self-expression. Beyond these people, the women that right now are having their bodies legislated by a council of men affirming with their sexist ruling that not only do they value gender norms as absolute, but that they value their position atop the hierarchy as male above the female that after such leaps and bounds forward reaffirming the old hegemony, rendering everything else a feign, a ploy designed to gain the confidence and will of the marginalized in a likely tight race. What about the little boy who has one Mommy that wishes to be a stay at home parent for all the right reasons, but can't because of Constitutional laws designed to make it impossible for the working mom to extend her insurance coverage to her child and Spouse. I've only enumerated a fraction of the injustices that are happening right now as I type this from the comfort and privilege of my two monitors. How do we go out and give voice to those without? To quote my least favorite public figures, 'injustice anywhere is indeed a threat to justice everywhere. We should never allow the mongering of the Masses to triumph over the rights of the individual, and this should be our only tenet of faith. Mass mongering has only ever produced, violence and oppression. Judge Garcia Orlando of Texas said it best: 'Without a rational relation to a legitimate governmental purpose , state imposed inequality can find NO refuges in our U.S. Constitution.
I say exile in Minnesota, but it is actually refuge in Minnesota. A privilege in Minnesota. As with everything I complain with a harsh critique about Minnesota, but I can think of no place else I would rather be. I was on one of my rants about Minnesota, and a Minnesotan friend spoke up and said, 'We aren't that bad, and it bothers me every time you say stuff like that.' She was correct Minnesotans aren't that bad, they are in fact wonderful, accepting and believe without fail in the rights of the individual. What that friend will not know until/unless she reads this is that she represents everything that is wonderful about Minnesota to me. It is in fact because of Minnesotans like Kenzie that I am not refugee, or feel as if I am living in exile, but know that I am finally home, accepted, and even more that I am welcome just as I am. I love you Kenzie, and I love you Minnesota thanks for giving me a home, a voice, a sense of self that I wish we together could find a way to give to so many others that live in the perpetuation of ignorance and fear at what should be the pinnacle of Western Society. Thank you Minnesota for being less concerned with being on the right side of history and more concerned with doing the right thing. I am home, and proud to call myself a Minnesotan (emphasis on the 'ou').
Written by a poverty stricken boy from Georgia that would grow up to be a middle-class woman from Minnesota. I never could have convinced that lost 14 year old that it was even possible, but here I am! Thanks Again, Minnesota...
