Here's my coming put post:
So I've been dealing with a lot of mental health problems lately, particularly depression and anxiety. I say lately, but its really been all my life. I have been getting treatment, though of course nothing is perfect, and even with medication, I have the same problems, but with less severity and frequency. I mention this because there is a third issue I've dealt with that I've only recently been recognizing and dealing with. I am also going to be / treatment for it. I have a diagnosis for gender dysphoria. What this means is that I have significant distress caused by the feeling that I'm the wrong sex. This has been a persistent and distressful feeling I've dealt with for most of my life, and has very likely contributed to my depression.
What exactly does this mean for me? I intend to start transitioning to a female identity, including medical transition. This has a huge stigma associated with it, and I'm about to run face first into it. I'm going to lose my male and cis privilege (to the degree that i ever really had them; that's a complicated topic) and start dealing with all the bull->-bleeped-<- women deal with every day, plus the bull->-bleeped-<- unique to living as a transgender individual. I have already told many of you about this, and all of your responses have been wonderful. I was going to wait until i had been on hormone therapy for a few weeks before making a public announcement, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to keep it a secret. If the hormones doesn't work for me, everything I've told you is still true, it just means i have more data to further an evolving understanding of myself. I hope that all of you will be tolerant, understanding, and open to learning.
I will be provisionally using the name Gwendolyn Deirdre Renee Sutton, and prefer she/her for pronouns.
