'The word transsexual is just a label'
Posted By Oluatoyin Alleyne On August 12, 2012 @ 5:08 am
http://sasod.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-word-transsexual-is-just-label.htmlAs a child Sade Richardson always knew there was something different about her and it took her years before she realized that she was a female in a male body.
"I knew I was different but I didn't know why... until I reached to about fifteen, sixteen; then is when I realized who I really was," she told the Sunday Stabroek in a recent interview.
Now 28, Sade is a 'pre-op transsexual,' meaning she has started taking hormonal treatment but the process has not been completed to make her a 'post-op transsexual.' The road to this point, begun ten years ago, has been a long and arduous long one, and today she continues to fight her battles – most times silently – although it pains her that society is so unaccepting of people like herself.
While she does not allow society to define who she is, it was more than a culture shock when she was required to return to Guyana from the US where she began the road to becoming a transsexual and was forced to deal with a homophobic society. Sade does not want to discuss why she returned to Guyana, nor does she reveal the name she was once known by, but during a difficult interview with the Sunday Stabroek her only appeal was for people like her to be allowed to live their lives.
For her the word 'transsexual' is just a label, which she said is not right, since at the end of the day she is a human being.
"Labels should be abolished; they're only, in my view, another form of discrimination. Everybody is different, yet everybody is created equal; we're all human beings. That's what we all have in common.
