Are You Out of Your Mind??? Why Do You Want To Be Transgender???
If you are lucky, I hope you get to meet a few transgender men and women.
As I wander through my transgender community online, among the many emotions that assault us, the one that we all seem to reach as rational people dealing with an irrational society is…
FRUSTRATION!!!
I hate when non-transgender people think that we choose to be transgender. They do not understand that we are born this way. There are times I wish I were left-handed or red-haired, but Mother Nature, in her infinite wisdom and — possibly with a twist of perverse humor — chose to make me transgender. I’d like to think that in another world, being transgender would be seen as a special attribute and not as a form of birth defect. Unfortunately, I live in this one.
I have found that most people who are transgender tend to be reasonably intelligent individuals with a unique perspective on life. We generally are creative and extremely empathetic. We need to be; we are confronted daily with a near-impossible task of grappling with an incredibly profound concept of our assigned gender. Then, without much (if any) assistance, we must realign our bodies and lives to another gender: our true gender. There is no school, no training program, no cohesive support network to help with this effort. The closest we get is therapy and the internet. Not a lot to build on in the real world that — oh, yeah — hates us.
Being transgender is quite an adversarial experience.
We are like the Navy SEALs of gender, except there is no way to wash out of this branch of the gender service. You’re in it for life. It is literally sink or swim, but we generally do both.
We are gender amphibians.
We live in both genders, creating our own personal blend of gender realities to survive. Few people operate in the world as adaptively as we do. That is why I find the transgender community populated with open hearts, generous spirit, and offering selfless support.
We get how tough life is and we don’t want to see anyone drown trying to live it.
If you are lucky, I hope you get to meet a few transgender men and women. Get to know them personally before you superficially judge them.
We are worth knowing.
Emma Holiday
Thank you for reading my work.
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My writing has three specific goals:
1. Writing is my therapy. I have a very limited outlet for my thoughts so I write to find a way to process the most profound experience in my life. I need to understand and I need to accept myself to move forward.
2. Being transgender, for me, is a very lonely existence and if I can share some of the things that I feel and think as I go through the process of transitioning with others who are transgender and, in some way, lessen their pain and sense of loneliness, then all of this public exposure of my personal thoughts is not a waste.
3. I write to help cisgender people understand that all trans people want is to be simply understood, accepted and treated as a normal person. We are.
