Alani Letang

Alani.letang@yahoo.com
April 12, 2016
(734)277-7742
Slug: Paper C
Ahya Simone, activist for Trans Sistas of Color Project and Black Lives Matter Detroit and a
Wayne State University alumni, said ever since she was young she has always been interested in
equitable structures like equality in the LGBT community and, Ive always had a vision of a
better world than what we exist in now.

The LGBT community refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) supportive
people, organizations and subcultures brought together by common interests and social
movements. N/D

Wanting to be apart of a more equal society, Simone said, is what led her into getting involved
with this community through activism.

Thats how I really got into it, just being a transwoman myself, I feel like my existence is a
form of activism because I exist in this world that tries to destroy people like me.

According to About News, a transwoman is a woman who was assigned a male gender that is
not consistent with her sense of self, and who lives and identifies as female.

The alumni said she was assigned male at birth, However, my relationship to my gender was
simply different.

According to the American Psychological Association, sex refers to a persons biological status
and is typically characterized as male, female, or intersex. Whereas, gender refers to the
attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that are given culture associates with a persons biological sex.

Simone said she has always been a feminine person, who is attracted to masculine identified
people.

However, she said, I just always was, and the way society is set up I wasnt allowed to be who I
was.

When she got older and had the agency and resources to be herself and live in her truth, she said
it was a difficult time.

As a freshman at WSU, Simone said, when she started to be the person she wanted to be, I had a
lot of issues with housing and the rooming situation. I told them you cant keep assigning me
male roommates, I dont feel comfortable, Im a woman, Im transitioning.

The alumni said by her second year at WSU she was lucky that all the men were homophobic
and transphobic and did not want to room with her, they saw the heels and makeup in the room
and hit it.

Having a room to herself did not stop her from being harassed daily by other residents and my
RAs (resident advisors) didnt care either, she said.

Homophobia is defined as, the hatred or fear of homosexuals that is lesbians and gay men, the
Anti-Defamation League reported. And according to Oxford Dictionaries, transphobia is the,
intense dislike of or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people.

Today Simone said she experiences a lot of transphobia from people who are, L, G and B
because its a lack of understanding.

LGB, or lesbian-gay-bisexual, refers to sexual orientation, she said, and trans is lumped in there
and she does not necessarily feel like it fits because transness is a state of being, its an existence
and its who I am.

The activist said she also experiences transphobia from other trans-people, We do have an
internalized transphobia.

To combat these phobias and try to bring all these people of existence together, she said, you
have to understand power structures, be aware of the space you take up and how some voices are
pushed to the forefront.

For clarification, Simone said, there are certain factors, like race that are within the LGBT
community that separate and divide those people in the community.

White gay mens desires and needs as a group are usually pushed to the forefront over Black
gay or Black trans issues.

She said, this is an example of inequality in a group and, if you want freedom or equitable
structures, you have to be able to accept people for all their intersections of existence.