The definition of a star is as follows: A celestial object highly visible in the night sky used to light worlds and historically guide the lost.
Most people do not know that stars do not actually fall. Stars simply fade away, providing leeway for a new host of twilight luminaries to do what they did and more.
Lois Bates was a star. She was elegantly visible—not making a caricature out of herself, and being careful to respect her power and others. She lit planets and establishments afire with her mercurial testimonies, convictions and expertise. Also, she guided the lost, ushering them into their higher selves.
Most people do not know that the sun is actually a star. Even fewer people know that in roughly a billion years it, too, will fade away. Lois Bates was a star that has faded away.
I write intentionally to acknowledge her contribution to the LGBT community, but I want to namely speak to the transgender community about how and where are our future stars are gestating. Who will continue to elucidate our plight and champion our intersecting causes? A star only fades away after it has served its purpose. Lois Bates did what the transgender ancestors called her to do.
I ask you, where is the future generation? Who else out there in the multiverse will answer? We must channel the pain from oppression into the joy of a beautiful and necessary struggle.
So, transgender communities, what are we going to do now that our sun has gone? Will we continue to beg for acceptance amongst identities and bodies that don't respect us? Will we continue to allow ethnicity and class to deprive us of our connection even while in the trenches? Will we continue to allow passing centricism, color complexes and sizism to prohibit us from attaining the freedom our cells ache for? Or can we share the burden of our liberation, as a whole, the way a star named Lois Bates did?
The sun is the biggest star in our solar system and, as I mentioned earlier, one day it will be no more. However, what about the trillions of smaller stars that exist within its proximity? Can you imagine what would happen if they became one?
If we can learn anything from the dwindling ascension of Lois Bates, it should be that your contribution should exceed your reputation. The African-American, womyn, transgender, positive, social-justice and advocacy worlds are now without sun. However, those left in the wake of said tragedy should not just be mournful, but eternally inspired to let their lights shine.
KOKUMO is a activist for the transgender, intersex and gender non-conforming communities affiliated with organizations such as Broadway Youth Center, Affinity and The Night Ministry.
