Anderson Cooper on Transgender

[Lee11]

Interesting show....

http://max-transformer.tumblr.com/post/13252280695/anderson-cooper-transgender-full-episode-by

[Darrin Scott]

I saw a part of the episode. I thought it was well done. The only beef I had with it was that they used a lot of "extreme" dysphoria stories, you know, the whole 'I was screaming at age 2 that something was wrong' Not to say those stories don't exist or that their pain isn't very real, but there's not a lot of room for those who didn't necessarily have the means to speak up about their discomfort.

Or people who didn't realize until later in life like myself. You often don't hear those stories.

[Dominick_81]

I'm a little confused... For people who didn't know until later in life that they were trans, did you feel like a girl up until that point and then decide, "no, I don't want to be a girl anymore or I don't feel like a girl no more?" Or have you always had the feeling you were born in the wrong body but were in denial about it?

[Darrin Scott]

I'm a little confused... For people who didn't know until later in life that they were trans, did you feel like a girl up until that point and then decide, "no, I don't want to be a girl anymore or I don't feel like a girl no more?" Or have you always had the feeling you were born in the wrong body but were in denial about it?

I don't think I was "born in the wrong body"...just a different one. Also, FTM wasn't really on my radar at 4. I didn't know I could be anything else other than a female. I didn't know anything. I think for me it was a process and not a "a-ha moment". Regardless, I know what I am. It doesn't matter when and how I got here. I know others feel the same and I'd like to see their stories more in the media.

[Dominick_81]

I don't think I was "born in the wrong body"...just a different one. Also, FTM wasn't really on my radar at 4. I didn't know I could be anything else other than a female. I didn't know anything. I think for me it was a process and not a "a-ha moment". Regardless, I know what I am. It doesn't matter when and how I got here. I know others feel the same and I'd like to see their stories more in the media.

Did you feel like you wanted to be a boy at 4? Or little bit older did you have feelings like you wanted to be a boy?

[Wesley_33]

I agree I didn't know what trans was till much later in life. I knew I felt different but couldn't put finger on why. I always played with the boys or when we played house I was the dad. Just felt normal to me I think. Than into middle school I hated being around the girls. I felt so out of place and I think thats when my social skills crapped out cause of it. Looking back now I see all the signs of being trans but not back than.

I'm just so glad things have come as far as they have that young kids now have the chance earlier to find themselves. I'm sure lots for us that didn't know till later in life was we didn't have this awesome world wide web to look things up on. This has changed so much is crazy. I don't think I really put two and two together sadly till one day watching Maury. Yes I know not the show to learn things from but that day the lightbulb came on and I did. I remember Buck on there and being jealous of him, cause I wanted to be a him.

[JohnAlex]

I'm a little confused... For people who didn't know until later in life that they were trans, did you feel like a girl up until that point and then decide, "no, I don't want to be a girl anymore or I don't feel like a girl no more?" Or have you always had the feeling you were born in the wrong body but were in denial about it?

I'll just speak for myself here. I didn't know I was "trans" until I was 19.  I hadn't even heard of the word "trans" until I was 17, and even then, I thought trans people were people who went to other counties to get massive surgery.  which is not what I wanted.  It wasn't until I was 19 that I learned how trans people felt, which then I was like, "Oh, that's how I feel too."

Now I didn't even have feelings of wishing I was born until about puberty.  Before then, like when I was 4, I didn't really know the difference between boys and girls.  I had a very sheltered childhood and I never went to public school, it's not like every day I was faced with "girls line up over here, boys over here."  I had no friends either.  I felt okay about my body and I dressed however I wanted.  Then at puberty is when everything really hit me and I realized that I really WAS a girl, and what that meant.  I honestly didn't give much of a thought to the fact that there are boys and girls before.  And then at puberty I imagined my life as an adult in a female body and I couldn't fathom.

[Nygeel]

I'm a little confused... For people who didn't know until later in life that they were trans, did you feel like a girl up until that point and then decide, "no, I don't want to be a girl anymore or I don't feel like a girl no more?" Or have you always had the feeling you were born in the wrong body but were in denial about it?

I didn't feel like a girl. I just was told I was a girl and went along with it. I wore what I wanted, although on.some special occasions I would passively resist wearing dresses. Even for choir, I asked to wear a skort instead of a skirt because skirts seemed weird. I knew trans women existed when I was in my early teens but didn't know anything else. In my late teens I met some trans men and genderqueer people and really challenged myself and how I viewed my own gender since until then I viewed it as how others saw it.

[Lee11]

Posted this before but here is my story from a year ago...I have been asked to do a follow up for one year later....


http://femalemuscle.com/%E2%80%98rebel-rebel%E2%80%99%E2%80%A6-leigh-penman-talks-openly-to-colette-nelson/

[Lee11]

I also did this. She is MTF but still relevant to the topic here


http://www.rxmuscle.com/rxgirl/female-bodybuilding/2775-christina-foxx-the-ultimate-shape-shifter.html

[sneakersjay]

I thought at 4 I was supposed to have been a boy, when I discovered that boys had something that I did not.  Then it dawned on me that I wasn't really a boy (anatomically speaking).  Always felt like a boy.  I didn't know it had a name; I was labeled a tomboy as a kid, so that's what I thought I must be: a girl who was not girly who liked frogs and mud and bikes and truck and stuff.  I always felt a bit off, like I didn't know how to be a girl, and never quite fit in.

I was 47 when I discovered that what I felt had a name, and that it could be fixed.

I would only hope that all the media attention surrounding trans people, including Chaz, will help people like me find their true selves. 

For decades I thought trans people were all a bunch of freaky men who were perverted enough to like to pretend they were women.  These were the people on Jerry Springer.  Or they were all just dramatic drag queens.  I knew I was NOT THEM.  This colored my perception of trans people for a long time.  Back in the 60s when the first trans women were hitting the news (well they weren't really first, but seemed to be first in the media) it was SCANDALOUS.  I knew I was not a scandal.  I was me.

So yeah, it took me a while to realize that what I thought trans people were was NOT TRUE and they were just normal people like me.  Girls born with penises and boys born without.  Not freaks.

Jay

[Nathan.]

I'm a little confused... For people who didn't know until later in life that they were trans, did you feel like a girl up until that point and then decide, "no, I don't want to be a girl anymore or I don't feel like a girl no more?" Or have you always had the feeling you were born in the wrong body but were in denial about it?

I was a couple of months off 18 when I realised I was trans, I never felt like I was a girl, I was always uncomfortable being a girl and apart from a brief time when I was about 13 I never wore feminine clothing. I just didn't know there was another option, i'd heard of trans women but just thought they were crossdressers taking it to the extreme, I didn't know much about it at all and had no idea that trans men existed. My first proper introduction to trans things was when someone on a forum I used to go on said they were genderqueer, I looked it up and from that moment I knew I wasn't a girl, it didn't take me long from there to know that I was a man.

[Sindo]

I was oh, about 35 when I realized I was trans. I was never comfortable in my skin, and while I knew about trans women, it never occurred to me that it went the other way too. It took meeting my boyfriend, who's trans himself, for me to realize that, well, duh, I'm the same way. I've never been particularly good at being a girl, which has always made my mother crazy, and I've always hated being female. I plan to keep on wearing my long black skirts and striped socks, because that's the kind of guy I am.

[Dominick_81]

Thanks for clearing that up for me guys.

[MaxAloysius]

Wow, I think that was handled really well. It is a little sad that most of the cases were so extreme, but I suppose they would have had to of been in order for the parents to have had enough knowledge to put steps in place for children so very young.

Lucky lucky kids...I'm so jealous of their early knowledge and caring parents!

Also, that surgeon was very well spoken and got her point across brilliantly!

[Jen61]

I think a lot of reccent media activity has painted young/children affected with GID in a good light; this is all good so that society learns that being GID is not a "life style" choice.

However, there seems to be an omission that adult people with GID were one so point time also children, and that as children most of us were severely abused or neglected at best.

my 2 cents

[Lee11]

This is the surgeon's website...what Anderson failed to say was that she is also transgender.

http://drchristinemcginn.com/


This is definitely who I want for my chest surgery.

[MaxAloysius]

Yeah, he talked about how she did the surgeries for personal reasons, because she'd been through the same thing. They also showed a photo of her when she was in the navy(?) presenting as male.