Discrimination

Today's morning listening was about "being right handed or left handed." There was only one person in my class who raised their hand when the teacher asked who is left handed but I guess some can use both... That would be useful!! He told us that left handed people were discriminated against only 200 years ago. I imagine there must have been many people who were discriminated against for various reasons and some discrimination have disappeared, some still exists. Even if you think it has disappeared, it might be still hiding deep down your heart... I think it's nearly impossible to completely change the way you think about something.
I don't know why but my friend likes to talk about countries. Sometimes (quite often, actually!), I think he's being racist. But when I stop and think "what is the border between being racist and just talking about a country?", I can't be confident enough to tell him he's being racist.

As I am a transgender and also bisexual myself, I would like to bring up LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) discrimination. I haven't experienced a BIG discrimination like hate crimes but little ones... Plenty! I don't even remember all of them. The biggest one I have experienced was this.
When it was time for me to apply for high school, I told my teacher that I want to go to high school as a male student (I was a tom boy at that time). So the teacher contacted Joso High School to ask if that would be OK. The reply was "Only if she (me) gets a doctor's prescription that she's really a transgender." So, during the summer holidays, I had to go to 2 hospitals to get the paper. It took a lot of time. After I got it and submitted it to JHS, they said, "Only boys are boys. Girls are girls." ............WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't tell you how mad I was!!! So, I had to apply for another high school - the one that I'm going to now. They were (and still are) very supportive of me. Also, my class mates are very accepting and nice. I'm really glad that I didn't go to that stupid JHS.
This is the biggest and most influential discrimination I have experienced. But there are loads of people who were murdered or committed suicide because of being "different." Find out more here.
The movie "Boys Don't Cry" is based on a true story. Brandon Teena was raped and murdered after his friends found out that he was a transgender. His girlfriend and another friend of his was also murdered for no reason whatsoever. The movie made me angry. No one has the right to kill anyone for being who they are. (I sometimes get worried that I would be the next one...)
Forbidding same sex marriage is also discrimination. I hear many states in the US are working hard to make it legal. I listen to the "Big Gay News" podcast which tells me what's going on in the world about LGBT. I very rarely hear what's going on in Japan. Yes, I know the guy doing the podcast lives in the US so the news is mainly what's going on there. But I don't think much is being done here...

I have written about a part of discrimination but there must be more that I will ever know about. I want to be a person who is accepting and kind. Stop looking, Start SEEING.