Personal Advocacy

One thing I really hate is when people simultaneously try to convince me that religion is an “answer” to my problems and tell me that “god doesn’t make mistakes.” There are quite a few things wrong with this approach.
First of all, religion (no matter which one, but I’ll specifically use Christianity, as that is the religion I encounter most in my daily life) is not supposed to be an “answer,” even if you look at the religion internally. For Christianity, the “answer” already happen. Jesus died, “answering” everyone’s sins. Religion is a journey through which insight might be found (depending on who you talk to). If religion was all about being an answer, things like faith, mysterious ways of greater beings, and cryptic allusions wouldn’t be needed or used.
Secondly, “god doesn’t make mistakes” is just about the least helpful way of saying anything about being transgender. So, since god doesn’t make mistakes, my gender dysphoria was intended? And he also intended for me to have the means to correct that so that I can use my personal advocacy to improve my life? Okay, I could be on board with that (but it’s just a way of inserting god extraneously into the conversation). Or maybe they mean that god just doesn’t make mistakes with physical forms (this is the interpretation that they seem to imply), and so we shouldn’t mess with that part of a person. So either they believe messing with the mind (where I guess god made a mistake?) is okay, or they believe that severe depression and dysphoria should just be suffered through (probably resulting in suicide, as statistics show about untreated individuals). Now, even ignoring the fact that trying to correct gender dysphoria with mind-alteration has been tried in the past (and the fact that it is not recommended by the DSM as proper treatment), what gives them the power to “play god” in such a selective way? So I’m just supposed to trust that you have a better idea of how to deal with this than the professionals who have training and schooling and research and experience to back them up? How is that a good way to convince me of anything?
And while I’m on the subject of convincing people of things, this has come up multiple times as someone is trying to sell me on their religion. This is where they go first after “you should believe in god.” Now, I might give your religion a chance if you are accepting of me for who I am, and then offer me a compelling or interesting reason to look into it. This process does the opposite of both.
One thing I am glad about is the fact that some parts of popular media seem to be moving away from this kind of thinking. In Fringe (I told you I’d write more about it), I really appreciate the fact that all of the problems in the series have human origins and also have human solutions. There is no “greater power” who fixes things, nor is there some “greater power” who causes all of our problems. I like to call this “Personal Advocacy.”
Personal Advocacy means that we have the power (individually and in a group) to create our own problems and solve them.
One of the major themes across the first four seasons is Walter dealing with the consequences of crossing between universes to save Peter. In the end, though, Walter is able to fix what he messed up (to be fair, Peter does the fixing, but by using Walter’s machine, and with Walter also helping him to realize what choice to make).
This theme of personal advocacy is reiterated across the series from the problem of the Observers in season five, to Olivia making her own escape from the alternate universe in season three.
The most wonderful part about this theme is the fact that it supports thinking which enables trans people to be an advocate for improving their own lives. But it does so in a way that doesn’t seek to alienate the trans person from those who would lend support.