What Could Be Worse Than 9/11?

My newsletters began in 1996 shortly after my first public appearance at a gender conference. My book, The Bliss of Becoming One! had just been published, and I was conducting several workshops at the conference. During one of the workshops, the incredible suffering and emotional trauma experienced by other cross-dressers and myself became almost tangible in the room. I vowed that I would never forget the pain and suffering and would work to alleviate it.

Over the years my message has expanded to include gay, lesbian, and bi-sexual people and anyone else who has experienced rejection. Ending discrimination and injustice are truly universal principles.

Conventional wisdom says to avoid discussing sex, religion and politics, yet those are often the key elements of my newsletters.

Last year my primary focus was on the General Conference of the United Methodist Church. They were poised to extend their restrictive treatment of gays, and I felt the need to speak out.

Now I feel strongly compelled to address the current political situation.

The radio clicked on and the usual traffic, weather and sports drifted by as I struggled to wake up enough to make shaving safe. Suddenly something registered. What? A plane had hit the World Trade Center? What kind of an idiot pilot could do something that stupid?

My wife and I drove to work still discussing the incident. Just as we were pulling into the parking garage, a radio broadcast startled us. A second plane had hit. This was no accident.

We rushed to my wife’s office to call our friend whose business was just around the corner from the World Trade Center. She was frantic. Several people from her office had not yet arrived, and she was terribly afraid.

I dashed to my office and flipped on the radio. A short time later I heard an incomprehensible message. One of the Twin Towers had fallen. I starred at the radio in disbelief. I had been there several times. They simply could not collapse. Yet, one had.

When I heard that another plane had crashed into the Pentagon and another in a field in Pennsylvania, it was clear that the United States was under attack. As my staff came in, I sent each of them home. Then my wife and I left as well.

At home we sat glued to the television as horrible scene followed horrible scene. We cried. We screamed. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing.

The unthinkable had happened. The ugly specter of terrorism that had infested much of the world for so long had been deposited at our front door.

When the President declared war against terrorism, I was ready to go. 40 years ago I had volunteered for Vietnam. If I were 20 years younger, I would have probably volunteered for Afghanistan. We had to get Osama and those like him.

Strangely, although Afghanistan was clearly the most obvious immediate source of the terrorist problem, we sent a relatively modest force and conducted small-scale operations. After awhile the war escalated dramatically and shifted to Iraq. What was going on? With very thin evidence, we launched a preemptive strike. Most of our traditional allies discounted the evidence, strongly opposed this action and refused to join us.

I was stunned. My country wasn’t an aggressor. We had a history of trying every reasonable approach to avoid war. Now we seemed to be looking for an excuse to justify the war. As more information unfolded, the justification for war became less and less palatable. How could the primary reason, Weapons of Mass Destruction, become a talk-show joke? What had we done? Wasn’t the United States better than that?

News items began appearing describing situations where basic civil rights were brushed aside in the name of national security. Soon it wasn’t just wild-eyed Taliban but regular citizens who were being interrogated. People were being held without charge. Rights were being suspended. Those who voiced disagreement were accused of being unpatriotic. What was happening to the greatest democracy in history?

Fahrenheit 9/11’s depiction of the war in Iraq further intensified my feelings. Until then most of what I had seen was highly sanitized. The movie showed the impact on the GIs and their families. It graphically depicted the horrors visited on the Iraqi people. It reminded me of the anguish I had experienced in Vietnam. I sat in the darkened theater in stunned silence with war images haunting me.

Eventually I concluded that the President and his chief officials had used the tragedy of 9/11 to launch an unjust war and are using that same tragedy to usurp our personal freedoms. The last time I had gotten actively involved in politics was to work for the idealism of JFK in the 60s. Now I knew that I had to get involved and work against the policies of George W. Bush.

My primary focus has been ending discrimination and injustice especially against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons. I didn’t want to get involved in politics and risk driving people away, but I cannot remain silent.

A major objective of my newsletters has always been to encourage people to think for themselves.

It is an extraordinarily difficult issue that requires moving beyond polarized positions into arenas of serious dialog. It requires searching for the truth.

Armed with the truth, I believe people will choose to turn away from preemptive, unilateral attacks. Will choose to turn away from fear mongering. Will choose to turn away from restricting civil rights in the name of security. Will choose to return to the principles that have made us a great and proud county.

What could be worse than 9/11? I think 4 more years of aggression, fear and loss of civil rights would be much worse!