I met this amazing woman
Allison Woobert a little over 6 years ago, she was still just starting to transition at the time. I saw and heard the pain in her life and my heart went out to her.
She very quickly became a dear friend
and as time went on and I got to know this person who had come into my life. I was in awe of the size of her heart. From
the very start, she wanted to help others!! Here she was, her life falling
apart around her and who was she thinking about; NOT herself, but of others
like her and she did NOT want them to suffer as she was, and she swore she would
do something to help them.. She has made it a point to fight (using words and
education) any person or group who threatened transgender people. Male or
female, to her it makes no difference, we are people to her, who deserve
to be able live a happy content life without being in fear or pain.
In time the idea
that our community had so many suicides and we were being beaten and murdered
at such an alarming rate, higher than genetic women or men, really upset her!! She
was at her wits end to bring that to the eyes of the world and put a stop to
it.. She never missed a Day of Remembrance Ceremony, she was often a key
speaker. I have never seen her speak at one of these ceremonies the she did not
have tears running down her face... it breaks her heart. Unlike others who give
lip service, she gives her heart!!
It took her a while, but
she started a group called Trans* Violence Tracking Portal (TVTP) to help find
cases of murdered Trans men and women that the police had let just drop because
no one seemed to care and it was so very successful. It has help reopen and solve several other
wise forgotten cases and justice has been done!. She has given up so much of
her time AND money to do this kind work, not because Allison Woolbert had to,
but because she really cares with all her heart!!!
But this has not come at
a price. She has gotten the attention of those who HATE Transgender people for whatever
reason and who would want us to just go away and die and THEY have attacked
this wonderful lady and tried to destroy NOT only her work, but her legacy. They
have told lies and slanderous stories in order to cast doubt on her honesty and
motives. THEY are the ones who are of black heart and would do us harm, NOT
Allison, she labored for us every day and has asked for NOTHING and I see
people who had exclaimed friendship turn on her and take the haters side in an
instant forgetting that it was SHE who had done the work, SHE who had
sacrificed, NOT them.
She had fought for them
day in and day out... never stopping always there, and how have they repaid
her?? By attacking her because of hateful stories about her PAST.. She is NOT
the person she was all those years ago!! NO ONE is. We have all changed, and
yet they judge her on a past long gone and irrelevant.
She got the petition for
Leelah’s Law up and signed and sent to the President to stop the so called
conversion therapy of trans children. Today one petition has over 300K who have
signed it and the Whitehouse.gov site has almost 100K today.
The transgender
community will sink once again into the tar pit of hate, cowardice and
uncaring, as before. Just like the Bible wavers and Homophobes want for transgender
people to be ignored and allowed to be exterminated like before with NO
justice.
It breaks my heart that
Allison Woolbert has given so much and helped so many and now they turn their
backs and jump on the hater’s band wagon. This is why transgender people will
NEVER be free to live our lives.. WE are our own worst enemy NOT Allison. She
is our Joan of Arc and like Joan, she has been cast off and
left to die no longer seen as the hero she is. This is why others will not
stand up and speak! The cowards are NOT trust worthy and will not stand with Allison
Woolbert when times get hard, you scatter or pick up a rock yourself.
This community, and I use
that word very loosely, is a disgrace and I am proud to know Allison Woolbert and
will stand not behind, but beside her for as long as she wants me there. she is
MY hero!! and she deserves better than cowards!
Jackie R.
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