Ending the Echo Chamber

Julie Jee, a high school English teacher from New York whom I follow on Twitter (@mrsjjee), posted, “This election is making me realize that we're all just screaming inside echo chambers of our own making.” Sadly, friendships both on and off line have been lost during this last election cycle. Regardless of the outcome, roughly half of the population was going to be upset.

It’s human nature to surround ourselves with others who are like us. Therefore, it stands to reason that the people we interact with on social media will likewise share similar views. The media was steadfastly against Trump becoming our next president. Even conservative newspapers supported Clinton over him. Was this an indictment on Trump’s ability and mindset to lead the country? Probably. Only time can answer that question. But it’s also fair to say that the media, like many of us, got caught up in its own echo chamber full of inaccurate polling and a lack of focus on the very thing that made Trump’s rise to power so strong--many Americans feel ignored by the political system.

If this country is going to heal, then we have to stop echoing thoughts that agree with our preconceived notions and biases. People who are against Trump are protesting and rioting in the streets; meanwhile, Trump supporters--even school-age supporters--are doing egregious things to their classmates, to women, and to minorities. It's time for people to treat each other with respect and dignity again. We will not all agree with each other's political and religious views, but at the end of the day, we are all human beings; we are all Americans. Discussion on these topics with the intent of understanding the other side is what helps us grow and become more accepting of each other. Life is not a binary code composed entirely of 0s and 1s. Parents need to stop teaching their children to hate. Life is too short for that. Love will always conquer hate, and it's time for the healing to begin. This means turning off openly biased Fox News and MSNBC. It means not sharing hateful things on social media; we know that war leads to more war, and hate only leads to more hate--the current divisiveness of our society is proof of that. It means standing up for minorities when people are ugly to them. They need our help now, more than ever.

For that reason, if you see me out in public, I will have a safety pin attached to my shirt. I will wear it as a symbol of solidarity with victims of racism, homophobia and religious discrimination. I will remain an ally to marginalized groups. I want others to join me.

Trump’s presidency is expected to be unapologetically anti-marriage equality, anti-immigrant, and anti-minority. (There’s a reason why the KKK openly supports him.) Reverting progressive policies opens the door to an increase in racism and xenophobia. It’s crucial during our unification that we be highly self-conscious about spewing hate toward each other. As a father of two young girls, as a teacher to over 100 students each year, and as a lifelong Democrat, I intend to set an example for the future generation to follow. The Law of the Prophets teaches us to “do to others what you would have them do to you.” To me, the safety pin is a perfect representation of this law. If I were an American-born son of immigrant parents facing classmates who yell “build a wall” and “go home” at me, then I would hope for someone to be in my corner.

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Equal Opportunity for All

As an educator, I’m worried about Tennessee’s new “counseling bill” on two levels. First, things like the counseling bill and the Bible bill get people worked up and distracted from common sense solutions to actual problems--like passing Insure Tennessee, for example. Second, I’m concerned because I work with the very population that this law affects the most. I work with students like Blake Brockington.

Blake, an 18-year-old student at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, became the first openly transgendered homecoming king in a North Carolina high school. When he was named homecoming king, Blake said, “Nobody should be scared to be themselves, and everybody should have an equal opportunity to have an enjoyable high school experience.” He went out of his way to mentor younger transgendered high school students--all while his home life was in turmoil. After coming out to his parents, his was kicked out of his house and placed in state custody, where a foster family eventually took him in. He committed suicide a little over a month ago.

Unfortunately, Blake’s experience is all too common in a society that fears what it does not understand. Transgendered individuals are not confused about their identities. In fact, they are as positive about their identities as you and me. Transgendered people identify as the opposite gender because they truly believe that they were born in the wrong body. It’s not because they’re homosexual and they’re certainly not identifying as the opposite gender to go into a different bathroom and commit heinous crimes.

According to the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National LGBTQ Task Force, an extraordinary 41 percent of trans people have reported attempting suicide--a rate nearly 10 times the national average for non-transgendered individuals. Certainly, life would be much easier to blend in with society and not be the social outcast, but this lifestyle is not a choice. What is a choice is how we react as a society. We can choose to either educate ourselves and become more accepting of people who are different from us, or we can turn our collective heads the other way, remain ignorant, and exacerbate the problem.

Sadly, Tennessee can now lump itself in with Alabama, Mississippi, and North Carolina as a states who are choosing to look the other way. Recent legislative attacks that were endorsed by the Republican National Committee are perpetuating the harmful narrative that transgendered people are dangerous and evil. This causes them to feel hopeless and turn to a counselor for help--except, in Tennessee, they can be turned away.

Granted, most counselors in this state will still help patients just as they did before this law was passed because, like educators, doctors, and other professionals, they do it because their passion is to help people. I also understand why Governor Haslam signed this hate-filled bill into law. He is a Republican governor who has to work with a Republican legislature for two more years. That means sometimes passing laws that are, frankly, bad for business. If the American Counseling Association moves their convention in 2017 to a different location, it will cost the state approximately $10 million in lost revenue. If musicians stop performing in Music City (and, possibly, Bonnaroo), as they have in North Carolina, the economic impact will be far greater--certainly in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The irony of this bill is not lost on me, as Republican lawmakers, who pride themselves on being pro business and small government, invented a problem to solve and then spent taxpayers’ money solving it, all the while breaking their sworn oaths that they “will not propose or assent to any bill, vote or resolution, which shall appear to me injurious to the people.”

I am standing up for students like Blake Brockington. Transgendered people deserve an equal opportunity to pursue their own happiness as human beings. They deserve to have educators, doctors, counselors, and other professionals treat them humanely regardless of their own personal beliefs, because that’s what professionals do. The citizens of Tennessee deserve to have a legislature that is interested in solving actual--not imaginary--problems.