Anonymous

            The justice system in the United States is at work everyday in many situations. The justice system is charged with punishing and sentencing those who violate the laws set down by legislatures. These punishments rely on evidence of said crime that proves guilt. Sometimes however the justice system fails in its task. This can be seen in prisons and jails across the country where the innocent are punished for the failures of the system. Movies are often created to depict current events often with fictional twists to separate them from true situations. Double Jeopardy is such a movie. Double Jeopardy is the story of a woman tried and wrongly convicted for her husband’s death.

Normally when I write a blog post, the inspiration behind it comes about in one of two ways. It is usually either an issue that I have always felt strongly about and just happened to want to write a blog post about (for example, the first blog post I ever wrote, which was about being pro-life and about disability rights), or something will happen to me that inspires me to sit down and write (Like my post about Mr. D, the homeless man who taught me how to dribble a basketball). The post I am going to be writing about today does not fall into either category. In fact, until recently, the issue I will be discussing today was something that rarely ever crossed my mind.

The issue I will be writing about is how I decided to become an ally for members of the Trans* community. It seems that so often when we hear about the LGBTQ community in the news, it is revolving around gay marriage or other issues of gay rights. There is rarely any talk about the Trans* (which signifies transgender male or female, bi-gender, genderqueer or anyone else who does not fit into the gender binary) community, Trans* rights or transphobia. Like I said before, I was not conscious of this until recently.

Since the beginning of my college career at Spring Hill, I have been a part of the Foley Center work-study program. I have worked at elementary, middle, and high schools since my freshman year. These schools are located in the poor areas of Mobile and the students have very low socioeconomic status. On the American Psychological Association website, I found statistics comparing students of high socioeconomic status to those of low socioeconomic status. Studies from 2002 and 2008 showed that students from low socioeconomic status were more likely to struggle with language and math skills and were more likely to struggle with reading.