Emancipation of Soul

 

 

My history classes in primary school in the 1990s taught me that President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation freed the enslaved. It wasn’t until I was older to research for myself, I found that while he made the 1863 announcement, the law allowed slavery to continue in slave states that were not at war with the Union. The ratification of the 13^th Amendment in 1865 freed all the enslaved but the Proclamation itself was impactful in that it strategically influenced the circumstances of the civil war, kept Britain and France from backing the Confederacy, and allowed for Black men to participate in service to the Union’s military (Editors). 

 

“I realized my soul would feel more congruent and secure…”

 

This demonstrates to me the power that backs not only voice and the instructions its vibrations can give a person, but that I do what I want to do and I don’t what I wish not to do. Abraham Lincoln made a conscious choice to decide and follow through with making an overdue and politically unpopular announcement to liberate some of the enslaved by the ink of his words. Six years ago today, I walked into an LGBTQ+ Veterans support group in the Aurora, Colorado Veterans Administration Hospital, and after seeing someone whose life mirrored some themes of mine, I realized my soul would feel more congruent and secure if I lived life like he’d chosen to. 

 

“a male presenting body is enough in some people’s minds that I simply changed clubs like a cultural exchange…”

 

Being a Trans* Gender Nonconforming (TGNC) human is sometimes sad for me; although I’m living my truth in who I am, the world around me hasn’t caught up (I say too it hasn’t yet remembered) to how I emancipate parts of myself while they still find themselves boxed into rigid social constructs. I grieve community I’ve lost as some women shunned me away because to them I am no longer of them. Ubuntu (the philosophy of “I am because we are”) suddenly becomes categorized. Despite my female brain and socially conditioned woman ways of being married to part of my soul, a male presenting body is enough in some people’s minds that I simply changed clubs like a cultural exchange. The truth is I now get to live my life more balanced through both genders, more genders, or none. I lived as a Queer Black woman for over three decades – those memories and ways of being don’t go away, and they don’t hurt me to relive/remember them because that was my life. 

 

“the spiritual transition and internal reunion…”

 

More than reclaiming my body, exchanging my body for characteristics that align with males has freed my physically so that I could do the work of releasing myself spiritually. Often, western culture talks about gender transition in terms of social and medical, and not everyone chooses both but will likely choose one way to be in the world. What is not talked about enough is the spiritual transition and internal reunion that has the potential to occur with introspection and dedication to the emotional archeology and gentle sifting that can lead to full satisfaction of self.

A foundational belief of living under the philosophy of Dwennimmen is being willing to search for and achieve spiritual alignment with one's self by assuring one's values are lived in integrity with the self. This may bring societal tension and challenge when it seems like most indicators around us can be counter messaging to our soul's blueprint. Tomorrow I travel to Orlando to present at a mental health conference with a group of BIPOC folk who experience plurality and multiplicity as I do. I always feel more free to be in that space and am grateful for others who actively choose to live their lives as authentically and as close to their soul's genuine representation as possible.

 

 Works Cited

Editors, History.com. Emancipation Proclamation. n.d. February 2026. https://www.history.com/articles/emancipation-proclamation.