“And now, oncoming traffic is embracing more transgendered children than parents.”

I have never really appreciated the impact of slam poetry until I heard Lee Mokobe at TED Women in Monterey this May. I appreciate that slam poetry as an art form is about making a statement. It wasn’t until that statement was about social injustice, and not just any injustice but that experienced by the poet, that I really understood.

“And now, oncoming traffic is embracing more transgendered children than parents.”

I don’t care your religion, race, belief system, age … never let a child believe they are unloved because they don’t fit what you believe they should be.

The crazy part is with all of the other messages packed into Mokobe’s TED talk it’s hard to even catch this line. Many people around me didn’t, until I repeated it and repeated it again, and tweeted it.

Mokobe is from Cape Town, South Africa and when we talked after the session, he said the government doesn’t appreciate his work. I can understand that. I can understand how the truth of his words might cause discomfort for some, but that is entirely why we need to listen.

Please watch.