In Solidarity with the Migrants & our Transgender Community
Last week, between 5 to 7 thousand Honduran & Guatemalan migrants, predominately mothers and children, have just reached the Mexico-Guatemala border in hopes to reach the U.S. to seek asylum. In September 2018, the US Department of State issued a travel warning to U.S. Americans traveling to Honduras due to crime and violence. Fleeing such violence, this very group of migrants recently began their treacherous 4,000 kilometer voyage from Honduras and Guatemala towards the Southern Mexico-U.S. border. Families have packed their lives into only what they can carry throughout the journey. Roger Pineda, a 16-year-old Honduran states, “I just want to find some food and a place to sleep.”
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” as it reads on the Statue of Liberty. We must not adhere to fear mongering, victim blaming, or our own discomforts with difference. May we instead choose to welcome one another in our varied ways of being in and moving through this world. We must choose our highest ideals of humanity and in order to work towards creative and caring solutions together.
All human beings have the right to seek a better life in their home country and abroad. Children, mothers and fathers are seeking safety, the ability to work to put food on the table to survive. Aliento stands with the migrant caravan and their right to seek a better life, one that is safe, healthy, and dignified.
This week we also witnessed another heartbreaking attack on our humanity. A memo was leaked by the New York Times which indicates that the Department of Health and Human Services seek to define "gender" as a "biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth.” This decision could harm trans folks, most immediately by preventing them the ability to update their gender on official documents and access medical services they need. It also leads to damaging legal, social, and cultural repercussions on the safety and wellbeing of trans people. We support the rights of our LGBTQ community and right now especially for our Transgender and gender non-conforming community to identify legally and socially as who they are, on their terms.
As our oppressions are interlocking, so too must be our social movements for human rights.
On this 3,000 mile plus journey for our migrant family, as well as in this struggle for our LGBTQ family, we honor the right for ALL to be seen as full human beings worthy of love, opportunity, compassion and well being. As we face these newly administered attacks on our humanity and livability, we feel even deeper the need to not let fear silence us, we must speak up and support each other.
