Post by Mingma on Mar 10, 2016 6:11:46 GMT 8
Amy is a friend of mine and in inspiration to me. I thought you might like a bit of good news/commentary, even if this is a couple of years old now. Amy is one of the subjects of a new film "The Pearl." As a bit of a post script, Amy's work has allowed a number of people to move forward with their lives, some of whom are emulating her and extending their slender resources to others. As of last week there were three people in the house, but that changes with the need and availability of resources. - Ming
ananiujitha.tumblr.com/post/77651717028/the-out-house-around-the-corner-by-amy-colbert
Hello my name is Lonness Valenna I am a 31 year old intersex / transgender women and fairy godmother to the trans community. I help facilitate and run a transgender house called Amy’s Out House in Seattle WA . If you have time our founder Amy Colbet “64 year old Transgender women” wrote a article about the out house we live in, what we do, and the problems we are seeing in the transgender community. I have mailed it to a few people I know and have given back praising feedback.. Even a lot of Cis-gendered people broke down saying “OMG ..I did not know it was that bad for you guys”…….sigh. A few people have sent edits on how to rewrite it and make sound better but I want to share it how it was written by Amy her self.
The Out House Around the Corner
by Amy Colbert
In a residential neighborhood not far from the University of Washington, lies Amy’s Out House, where transgender girls are welcome to come in to come out. It is a private residence and not a drop-in center, but we do enjoy having guests. Presently there are seven trans women, one trans man, and one sweetheart in residence, which would normally strain most everybody’s spatial requirements in a house that the realtor thought was small for two. But within certain limits, where there is room in the heart there is room in the home. I myself grew up in a large family where private rooms were out of the question, so I know that a family can thrive where individualists will clash. As a consequence, our home is established not by mutual contract, quid-pro-quo exchange, and rules and regulations, but as a family home where sharing is both the rule and the expectation—and where we get to choose our own family. We live here not as juridical entities, but as whole persons who are trying to become wholly who we are. That takes a lot of guts, sprinkled with spiritual introspection and a generous dash of love. We function not as a crash pad, but as a launch pad for personal transformation. As they say, transition is not for sissies, and not everyone is equal to so personal a challenge.
It all began right at Emerald City Social Club two years ago, where I met the remarkable Lonness Valenna, who was a week away from homelessness at the time. An unused room seemed eminently usable, and the rest is history. Those who know Lonness know that she is not only out, but way out there, and it was she who dragged me out full time, once I had plucked up the courage to follow along in her slipstream. Soon she was out again connecting with the trans community throughout the Puget Sound area, offering among other things her Fairy Godmother program, where new transgender girls are accompanied to thrift stores and given some money to explore their gender expression, or simply shown a good time window shopping. Given her persistence, the place was soon overrun with the fascinating, the interested—and the needy. And the need is great indeed. A recent study, Injustice at Every Turn (go look it up on the web), reports that nationally the unemployment rate is double for the transgendered (and must be a good deal higher for transsexuals), with the result that19% of us have experienced homelessness at some time, of which 29% were turned away from homeless shelters, while 49% were sorted as the wrong gender, where 25% were physically and 22% sexually assaulted. Swallow that in one gulp if you can.
We see the human face of these statistics at the Out House. In our first year of operation we housed 13 residents who stayed at least three weeks, with an average of 8 at any time. But we had to turn away 32 for lack of space and resources, of which 14 were under 21 and 17 had been turned out of their homes for being transgender. Our Josie had even fled from Kuwait, where the transgendered are given long prison sentences that in effect are death sentences due to the transphobic prison atmosphere. She was lucky enough to have been born here in the Puget Sound area, and so was able to get a U. S. passport and slip out under the narrowed eyes of transphobia.
You may be wondering how we make ends meet. Mostly with the frugality and sharing that is usually picked up as a life lesson with homelessness. Because we are sharing our hardships, we not only are getting by, but learning to support one another, not only in our bodily needs, but more importantly in the spiritual ones. And the support we receive from outsiders, occasionally in cash but more often in kindness, never fails to awe us all. There’s something contagious about it.
So what have we learned at Amy’s Out House? That sisterhood is stronger than all the abuse and prejudice that a harsh uncomprehending world can throw at us in its misguided attempt to prevent us from becoming ourselves. That inviting a homeless trans woman into your home is far more than an act of charity: it is an invitation to become an authentic women yourself, one who cares about and who nourishes and who shares intimacy with a sister. And curiously enough that the burden of it all is the willingness to put up with sisters who care, nourish, and share intimacy in return. It must be said that this does not come without drama—but we’re determined to keep it from becoming the tragedy it otherwise might have been had we done nothing.
It is said that this nation has the largest houses in the world—and the most homelessness. We don’t have so much a homeless problem as a hospitality problem. Here is one apparently intractable problem that can easily be solved, one heart at a time.
To all I have shared this to in emails you are now welcome to spread it out across the web. Don’t share this because it’s a story of a “Trans” House. Share this because it is a message of love and hope for us as people. It’s a example of one women opening her heart and home to us who in most cases had no chance at all.
(Note: Amy has no Facebook so that is why she is not tagged in the pictures )
(Lore: Amy came up with the name “The Out House” because you come in to get “Out” and be your true self. Not because most trans are thrown out like trash by family that don’t understand or has anything to do with a out door water closet.)
ananiujitha.tumblr.com/post/77651717028/the-out-house-around-the-corner-by-amy-colbert
Hello my name is Lonness Valenna I am a 31 year old intersex / transgender women and fairy godmother to the trans community. I help facilitate and run a transgender house called Amy’s Out House in Seattle WA . If you have time our founder Amy Colbet “64 year old Transgender women” wrote a article about the out house we live in, what we do, and the problems we are seeing in the transgender community. I have mailed it to a few people I know and have given back praising feedback.. Even a lot of Cis-gendered people broke down saying “OMG ..I did not know it was that bad for you guys”…….sigh. A few people have sent edits on how to rewrite it and make sound better but I want to share it how it was written by Amy her self.
The Out House Around the Corner
by Amy Colbert
In a residential neighborhood not far from the University of Washington, lies Amy’s Out House, where transgender girls are welcome to come in to come out. It is a private residence and not a drop-in center, but we do enjoy having guests. Presently there are seven trans women, one trans man, and one sweetheart in residence, which would normally strain most everybody’s spatial requirements in a house that the realtor thought was small for two. But within certain limits, where there is room in the heart there is room in the home. I myself grew up in a large family where private rooms were out of the question, so I know that a family can thrive where individualists will clash. As a consequence, our home is established not by mutual contract, quid-pro-quo exchange, and rules and regulations, but as a family home where sharing is both the rule and the expectation—and where we get to choose our own family. We live here not as juridical entities, but as whole persons who are trying to become wholly who we are. That takes a lot of guts, sprinkled with spiritual introspection and a generous dash of love. We function not as a crash pad, but as a launch pad for personal transformation. As they say, transition is not for sissies, and not everyone is equal to so personal a challenge.
It all began right at Emerald City Social Club two years ago, where I met the remarkable Lonness Valenna, who was a week away from homelessness at the time. An unused room seemed eminently usable, and the rest is history. Those who know Lonness know that she is not only out, but way out there, and it was she who dragged me out full time, once I had plucked up the courage to follow along in her slipstream. Soon she was out again connecting with the trans community throughout the Puget Sound area, offering among other things her Fairy Godmother program, where new transgender girls are accompanied to thrift stores and given some money to explore their gender expression, or simply shown a good time window shopping. Given her persistence, the place was soon overrun with the fascinating, the interested—and the needy. And the need is great indeed. A recent study, Injustice at Every Turn (go look it up on the web), reports that nationally the unemployment rate is double for the transgendered (and must be a good deal higher for transsexuals), with the result that19% of us have experienced homelessness at some time, of which 29% were turned away from homeless shelters, while 49% were sorted as the wrong gender, where 25% were physically and 22% sexually assaulted. Swallow that in one gulp if you can.
We see the human face of these statistics at the Out House. In our first year of operation we housed 13 residents who stayed at least three weeks, with an average of 8 at any time. But we had to turn away 32 for lack of space and resources, of which 14 were under 21 and 17 had been turned out of their homes for being transgender. Our Josie had even fled from Kuwait, where the transgendered are given long prison sentences that in effect are death sentences due to the transphobic prison atmosphere. She was lucky enough to have been born here in the Puget Sound area, and so was able to get a U. S. passport and slip out under the narrowed eyes of transphobia.
You may be wondering how we make ends meet. Mostly with the frugality and sharing that is usually picked up as a life lesson with homelessness. Because we are sharing our hardships, we not only are getting by, but learning to support one another, not only in our bodily needs, but more importantly in the spiritual ones. And the support we receive from outsiders, occasionally in cash but more often in kindness, never fails to awe us all. There’s something contagious about it.
So what have we learned at Amy’s Out House? That sisterhood is stronger than all the abuse and prejudice that a harsh uncomprehending world can throw at us in its misguided attempt to prevent us from becoming ourselves. That inviting a homeless trans woman into your home is far more than an act of charity: it is an invitation to become an authentic women yourself, one who cares about and who nourishes and who shares intimacy with a sister. And curiously enough that the burden of it all is the willingness to put up with sisters who care, nourish, and share intimacy in return. It must be said that this does not come without drama—but we’re determined to keep it from becoming the tragedy it otherwise might have been had we done nothing.
It is said that this nation has the largest houses in the world—and the most homelessness. We don’t have so much a homeless problem as a hospitality problem. Here is one apparently intractable problem that can easily be solved, one heart at a time.
To all I have shared this to in emails you are now welcome to spread it out across the web. Don’t share this because it’s a story of a “Trans” House. Share this because it is a message of love and hope for us as people. It’s a example of one women opening her heart and home to us who in most cases had no chance at all.
(Note: Amy has no Facebook so that is why she is not tagged in the pictures )
(Lore: Amy came up with the name “The Out House” because you come in to get “Out” and be your true self. Not because most trans are thrown out like trash by family that don’t understand or has anything to do with a out door water closet.)
