OT "I'm Dealing With A Few Transgender Issues"

I can answer this....I never questioned my gender nor had reason to question it but that's just my experience, I won't assume it's at all the same for anyone else. I'd say by puberty most young people would become aware of what arouses them and how they feel about themselves and their own leanings. Choice....the most precious freedom. Every human should be free to choose their personal gender identity. It's certainly not any of my business to judge anyone.

 

No. Nor my gender. Even though from a young girl, before the women's liberation movement, I chafed at restrictions on girls and women, I knew I was as smart as any boy if not more so, I never doubted I was a girl. I didn't want to change my gender, just how we were seen and treated. And when I became aware of lesbian sexual orientation it was, oh, that's what I am.

 

I knew I wanted to be a girl as young as 11, and the friction between my body and my mind only got worse as it went along. Given how casually homophobic and transphobic everyone was back then, it was a dream I had to just… put away, but I was miserable because of that.

If I had been 12 in 2015, when it seemed kind of okay to come out, when transgender was a term people were actively talking about, I’d have wanted gender affirming care (puberty blockers, then social transition, then correct hormones) immediately. It’s important to note here that the only difference is opportunity, not desire. I wanted as much then to be a girl as kids these days do, and I’m not better than them for having to suffer to get my wish. It’s never too late to transition but that doesn’t mean we should make kids suffer for the convenience of parents.

 

You'd feel that limb breaking out from underneath you ... but keep making assumptions!

 

My first favorite color was pink and I told my mom I was going to wear a dress to my wedding, all this when I was about five or six. And yet I grew out of that and changed, because that's what kids do as their minds develop. There shouldn't be blanket rules for this and there are always exceptions to every rule, but dealing with young people everyday, it's easy to see how their emotions and thoughts swing wildly, sometimes from day to day.

 

While I'm all for a person pursuing whatever makes them happy (or "whole"), I too feel that some decisions should be held off until adulthood. Sometimes feelings change. I shudder at some of the decisions I made pre-adulthood, despite being 100% "sure" at the time. I guess what probably motivates my thinking is watching some of the people I grew up with. We knew at a very young age that they were "different", despite not being particularly aware of homosexuality (this was the early to mid '60's after all). Great people, just "different". Yet it took several into their fifties, after heterosexual marriage and kids, to come to grips with the fact that they were gay....and always had been. Despite what those of us around them "knew", they genuinely did not have a clue (or so they say) until they were older and more mature. So that's all I have to go by. I have no problem whatsoever if someone wants to transition, but there's really no going back, so they need to be old enough and mature enough (yes, I realize that maturity is not guaranteed with age) to be absolutely sure the decision is one they can live with going forward.

 

EDIT: forget it; I’m sorry I antagonized you. I hope none of your students die because of your decisions. That’s literally all I can hope for.

 

Going through a male puberty did untold damage to my psyche and to my body. I don’t get to be feminine in ways I wanted when I knew I was a girl, because a male puberty eliminated that opportunity.

I can’t imagine being a trans kid who HAS that opportunity in front of them today experiencing the pain of being told by some adult, “no you have to wait until the wrong puberty has irreversibly changed your body before I will let you transition because I am afraid even if you’re not.”

Starting a kid on blockers doesn’t do anything irreversible. Socially transitioning kids when they want doesn’t do anything irreversible. Why is this so scary to people?

 

Dress up is not the same as being trans, for fuck sake. Stop trying to trivialize.
I dressed as a ballerina for Halloween when I was five and can't dance a lick!

The right is pushing not only bigotry but misinformation. Some kid doesn't say I want to change gender and next day has surgery. They go through a whole process that includes determining if they are indeed trans or nonconforming, or just rebelling against gender roles. Or simply unhappy with their life.

What the crap I am seeing posted here boils down to is "hey, I know better than you people what's good for you. Because I am a cis straight male! So I must know better!"

 

Republicans are obsessed with sex

 

"I'm sorry I antagonized you" ... literally in the next sentence goes back to antagonizing! I was trying to ask some questions and get to know your position better, you choose to (I guess by the use of the word antagonize) get mad. I'm sorry if you're angry and can never truly understand the trauma you've experienced but was trying to have a conversation.

 

The lengths that you jump to are amazing, never once have I said I know what's better. It was supposed to be a conversation but some of you seem incapable of that. I'm not a republican, I'm not a liberal, I like many sit in the middle and am just trying to learn more from personal experiences and decided to share some of my own, if that's too much for you, than that seems like a you problem and not a me problem.

 

Welcome to my world…

but really. You are just ignorant, short sided and continually dehumanize others.
How dare you ask questions and try to have a conversation to better understand!

 

Yes. Isolate, ostracize - that is the exact purpose.

 

If I am incapable of a conversation and I am the problem ... why bother to reply? I had hoped by explaining that children know their gender early on and that applies to trans as well as cis children you might actually consider that people don't transition on a whim. Or because it's a fad for god's sake.
no luck

 

The rights of my people to life, liberty, and the pursuit of motherfucking happiness are not a god damned "conversation." Jesus FUCKING Christ. Why do I have to be calm and reasonable around the rights of my people? Why do you get to have me fucking sing and dance for you and act all patient and kind and generous while you consider your position about the rights of my people to safety and identity? Answer me that before you continue the "conversation" with me.