Transgender.

That’s not a word that most people are used to hearing. It’s a word some people go out of their way to avoid.

According to Merriam-Webster, transgender means “of, relating to, or being a person who identifies with or expresses a gender identity that differs from the one which corresponds to the person’s sex at birth.”

I personally have to disagree with this definition. According to my transgender friend, transgender people do not “appear”: or “attempt” to be members of the opposite sex. They feel that they are members of the opposite sex.

Transgender people feel like they are trapped in the wrong type of body. Imagine what it would feel like to be a girl stuck inside a boy’s body and have everyone think that you are a boy.

It may be difficult to understand that sometimes a boy wants to be a girl or a girl wants to be a boy, but it does happen. Sometimes people are not happy with the gender into which they were biologically born. They cannot be blamed for wanting a sex change or dressing as the sex that they feel like they are.

Society today discriminates against transgender people. This must change. According to TransgenderLaw.org, 2-5 percent of the population is transgender. That may not seem significant at first, but that’s 2-5 out of every one hundred people who are transgender.

Nov. 20 was Transgender Remembrance Day, a day to honor the lives of everyone who has died because of bigotry against transgender people.

This year alone there were 1,509 reported murder cases of transgender people according to Trans-Respect versus Trans-Phobia. The murder rate for the average person  is 6.2 out of every 100,000 people according to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The murder rate is much higher for transgender people because of the hatred and discrimination that they face.

Too often, people are prejudiced against individuals who are different from them. Even though we may not understand what it is like to be transgender, we need to accept them. They deserve as much love and respect as any other human being for they have the same inherent dignity as anyone else.

Rachel Amrhein is an Opinion Columnist for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.