Dear Governor Pence,

Hi. I am a citizen of Bloomington, Indiana. I feel it is more than the right time to get some equality for all
Hoosiers of the Trans equality here. I feel the laws protecting citizens that have gone unnoticed and
need to be updated to include the trans community. When I am making reference to the trans
community I am including the transsexuals such as myself I also include those that identify as bigender,
agender, genderfluid, and genderqueer. I know that you place religion at a very high priority regarding
politics and while I respect your position in your beliefs I feel that God created everyone equally and feel
that by leaving out that are different to say the least is marginalizing part of the Hoosier citizens. By
marginalizing part of the Hoosiers here it makes people like me that we have no value in society. We are
all people first and foremost. Everyone I feel deserves to seek their happiness as long as it is legal.
Like me for many years I tried so very hard to fit into society like anyone else. I tried being a man to
which I was socialized as being. I lived in the Christian Conservative Fundamentalist White Straight
Cisgender male world where I had a privilege of which I didnt realize until I lost that right. I lost it
because I came to the realization that I was not the person that the world sees me as and tried so very
hard doing so. I am a woman, just one that is in the wrong body. I tried for so very long hiding my
feelings and prayed to God to rid myself of these very feelings. But no matter how hard I tried fixing
myself these feelings persisted. By suppressing my feelings of my inner most gender identity I was only
hurting myself eternally. The more I lied to myself and to others I was feeling all dirty and ashamed
inside. The very depths of my soul I was aching all over. Like you I was taught that is not only being LGBT
but if one acted upon it that I was destined for the very gates of hell.
But ever since me finally accepting myself but only after me making an attempt on my life that I come to
accept who I am. I was born as a transsexual and these feelings will always be a part of me. At a very
early age in life the mind is mapped and so it cant be changed but the body now that is a whole
different matter. The body can be altered to match the brain to make me feel whole. Ever since I started
socially transitioning to the woman that I have always been the happier I am becoming. I am happier
because I am now for the very 1
st
time living an authentic life and it feels great. I still go to church but to
one that loves me for who I am. I feel that the very core of the problem of transsexuals being accepted is
because society feels that we the trans community is out in society to recruit others to be transsexuals.
Which is why would we recruit people to be transsexuals? Being a transsexual is an extremely hard way
of life. We face discrimination every single day of our life once we started being true to ourselves. We
can be fired for simply being ourselves and lose housing. We also do not get a fair shake when it comes
to medical care and insurance. We get mistreated at the BMV for our gender identity expression when
we get our pictures taken for our Drivers License. We are made to look like society sees us even though
we do not look like this in our everyday life all because they say that we are being deceivers. But when
we were living our lives before coming out is when we were deceiving ourselves and others. And when
we face homelessness and yes most of us go through all because of who we are, there is no shelters
where we feel safe. I feel that when we are homeless that there should be a LGBT shelter and in order to
get in we should have a therapist verify that we are LGBT. I want to have a Community Shelter inside the
shelter where we can get our meals, have a computer lab where we can look for jobs and work on our
resumes and apply for jobs. I also feel that we also need people there on staff that can help us look for
LGBT friendly employers to which we can apply for jobs without facing discrimination. By having us living
in a regular shelter it is putting us at risk both by we hiding our true selves and then committing suicide
or by us being true to ourselves and facing harassment and violence all because we are so willing to put
ourselves out there.
So I feel that we need to be treated like everyone else and have a law put in place for trans equality and
put also into law where if we are a victim of a violent crime that person who is being found guilty of the
crime also be charged with a hate crime as well.

Concerned Transsexual Citizen,
Sara Ashley Cole