Pole vaulter Balian Buschbaum was a junior world record holder. He was also Yvonne Buschbaum. “I feel as if I am a man and have to live my life in the body of a woman. I am aware of the fact that transsexuality is a fringe issue, and I do not want to be responsible for it remaining on the fringe.” He adopted his new first name after the blacksmith in the movie Kingdom of Heaven after undergoing gender reassignment surgery in 2008.

I witnessed a horrible incident today over dinner. It was unpleasant but judging from the reaction of the victim (a transwoman), one could tell that she is probably used to such discrimination. Transphobia needs to stop. We have more important things to worry about. For example, some human beings are just so rude, obtuse and a pain to deal with.

(via TransGriot, see more of Balian here)