Male, Female, or However you identify - BE YOU!

[Fae]

I think there is too much of a focus in this society (and indeed within the TG/TS community) to label people, and some of us suffer because of this.  Society (and the TG/TS community) as a whole tend to push us into little boxes to categorize ourselves.  Just think how many words are used to categorize people based on gender: Male, female, intersex, men, women, transgendered, androgynous, transwomen, transmen, transsexual, MTF, FTM, crossdresser...the list is endless.  There's too much focus on labeling a person when we should really be focusing on what makes that person special and unique.  There's so much more to a person than just their gender.

Each of us are individuals with unique personalties.  Each of us has something special to offer to the world, and I think focusing on the labels distracts from this.

However others label you, or however you label yourself, don't focus so much on the label.  Live for the PERSON you are, and NOT the label.  Do what makes you feel happy.  Live for who YOU are.

~Fae

[asiangurliee]

Very good advice, if only more people think like that.

[Manyfaces]

Amen.

[Butterfly]

Never a good idea to try to be someone else.

[Jay]

Very good advice Fae

[gennee]

I don't let labels define me. Labels will always be there but it doesn't detract from who we really are. Great advice, Fae.

Gennee

[Luc]

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ErickaM]

I wish everyone thought that way....thanks.

[Pica Pica]

has anyone ever actually tried to be someone they are not?

[nathan]

has anyone ever actually tried to be someone they are not?

Yeah. 

[Ms.Behavin]

I hate labels, I'm just me.  Too complex to fit within narrow constraints of a single or several labels.

Beni

[TheBattler]

This is all we need - can we shut down that awful threads that divide us?

Alice

[Fae]

This is all we need - can we shut down that awful threads that divide us?

Alice

It would be nice...I don't know why people in our community hate each other over petty things. 

And you're welcome everyone, I just wanted to say this because, while I know it's like "well duh, I knew that," we often forget, and I just wanted to write it out to remind myself and everyone else.  I've been feeling a little off lately and transition is a really long and trying process, and I'm just trying to be myself while I proceed through it.

~Fae

[Thundra]

That's why you kids are going to change the world as we know it.

The first wave of people transitioning were actively involved in challenging the system.
Lots of activists.

The second wave didn't want to be pariahs like the first group and became obsessed with disappearing into the population at large and passing and labels.

You guys are the third wave, and you make no apologies for how you were born, but you don't allow it to define you either. You don't look for trouble, but you don't run and hide when they shine the light your way either. Social revolutions are always like this.

The kids that come along later always have it easier than the first, and so on and so on. Until eventually, they forget what the issue was in the first place. I give it another twenty or thirty years tops before we hit that point.