Differences aren't something to fear

I’m left-handed. Even as late as middle school in the 1980s, I had a teacher who tried to shame and discipline me into switching hands. My grandmother was also naturally left-handed, but as a child, she was beaten with a ruler until she learned to write with her right hand.

Of course, I’m not equating the treatment of my left-handedness on the same level as what trans folks experience because it’s not even close. They are not the same, and I don’t claim to understand what trans folks go through. But this comparison helped me recognize a pattern: how society treats people it sees as “different” or “other.” And what changes when we stop trying to “fix” people and start treating them as, well, people.

We saw a rise in left-handed people once the shame and punishment stopped - not because more people became left-handed, but because they finally felt safe to be themselves.

What if we created that kind of safety and dignity for everyone - regardless of how they identify? Whether it’s their gender, sexuality, race, faith, profession or any of the countless ways we show up in the world - what if a difference wasn’t something to fear or fix, but simply another way to express empathy?