I've browsed this site off and on for a while now but this thread prompted me to actually sign up because I possibly have few things to contribute as I have some limited experience in this area. I'm 62½ years old and dealt with being trans as a child in the 1960's and on into my teen years so my parents did much of the leg work for me. Contrary to some popular opinions, trans youth are not just a recent phenomenon but I suspect most from my generation didn't survive?
In 1965 when I was ten years old, my folks took me to a child psychiatrist for the first time to see if they could figure out what to do with me but during those times, doctors didn't know enough about trans stuff in general and the notion that children could be trans was completely unheard of so it wasn't very helpful. For years, I was schlepped around to different doctors but I was a smart enough kid to keep my mouth shut fearing all the horrible things that could happen like being taken away from my parents and institutionalized. I felt very broken and didn't want anyone to know. In spite of that, all my parents were told was that I was probably going to grow up and be gay because I was so girly. I don't imagine they were thrilled but it was some sort of plausible explanation for things but they loved me and it didn't matter. They were more concerned by the social problems all this was causing more than the person I was.
My life has been pretty weird because I was never really seen as much of a boy. I started growing out my hair after the 2nd grade which only added to my problems in school. I had my own dolls and Barbies and EZ-Bake ovens and while being mostly shunned and ostracized, the friends I did have were girls and all the typical stuff you hear about, yada, yada.
I started 7th grade, junior high, in 1967 and that's when things really became difficult. The school wouldn't enroll me because my hair was too long but after my parents threatened to sue the school board, the matter was dropped. Then there was gym class and locker rooms and showers and there was no way in the world I was doing that and life became really difficult. The letter one of my shrinks wrote thankfully got me out of that and I spent the 7th and 8th grade PE class folding towels in the coach's office. As one might imagine, all this came with a lot of bullying which was a lot more than just harsh words and taunts.
In the 10th grade when I was fifteen (1970), I was attacked by a group of homophobic boys, ended up in the hospital and missed nearly a month of school. This was the real turning point in my life and in spite of being punished for talking about it when I was child, I finally opened up to my folks with the things I knew about myself. I was not a boy, never had been a boy and there was no way I ever was going to grow up and be a man. That simply was never going to happen, one way or the other.
This came as no big surprise or a shock but as my mom said, there wasn't much that could be done about it. "Transitioning" was simply not something kids did, heck, even cross-dressing was illegal but I was allowed to be androgynous as I could get away with without getting kicked out of school and even that took a lot of my parents frequently visiting the school on my behalf with notes from shrinks that I was never quite sure what they said. I got my ears pierced, shaved my legs, got my brows done and was the biggest freak anyone had ever seen. We still didn't have words for this or labels but I was just who I was.
By the time I was 16 or so, outside of the school environment most people assumed I was a girl. By this time I was spending hours in the main public library researching and learning as much as I could and my parents continued to find professional resources that might have a clue. The summer after my junior year, with a lot of letter writing and phone calls, my folks did find a doctor 150 miles away that knew what the heck they were doing and unlike anyone I'd ever seen before, he knew right away what was going on. At 17 (1972), I started HRT and by the time I graduated, had long blonde hair to my elbows, obvious breast development and a nice curves on my thin 5' 7" body. From the way I was treated in school, you'd have thought I was a leper or had a contagious disease and I think a lot of kids did think I had some kind of an illness (other than a mental one - haha). It was the hardest time in my life.
The week after I graduated high school in 1973, with a letter from my doctor and a fierce mother at my side, I was able to get my identification changed and my folks made all the arrangements for getting my name legally changed. Switching names and pronouns and making the final steps to fully present as a girl came as a welcome relief to me as well as my folks. It wasn't like there was much to do because I'd already been more or less passing for several years at this point.
I got my first real office job at 19, moved out on my own and began my own quest to get things taken care of. I contacted Johns Hopkins but that was a mess and then Stanford and some place in Texas but it all seemed so hopeless and impossible. What I had going for me was that I was well blended, people didn't know and I had a good job but emotionally/internally, with each passing year the more dark and difficult things became for me.
Without writing more of a novel on how things came about, in June of 1977 I checked into the hospital for SRS at the age of 22. This is when I met and spoke to another trans person for the very first time.
My story is not typical. I was never a man that had to transition during those times and really can't speak for that experience or to the difficulties and challenges faced by those that did face discrimination and prejudice and family and employment problems. I just grew into and grew up to be a girl and I've never been part of the trans or LBG community or been out and only within the last year or so have I taken any interest in others like me but there aren't really many like me close to my age which is kind of frustrating at times. So yeah, whatever was going on in the '60's and '70's for other trans people, I was pretty oblivious to it all due to all the help and support I had from my amazing parents and by keeping a low profile. Things sure are different these days though because information is so much more readily available and there are other people to talk to, videos to watch and so on plus the medical community has a better understanding than they did in the past.
One of the biggest things I've noticed is back in the day, gatekeeping was a whole lot more strict. If you weren't feminine, heterosexual in your new gender, didn't pass or couldn't hold down a job, no one would treat you or give you the time of day. You were expected to blend into the woodwork and keep your mouth shut. The terminology has changed too. At first, doctors said I had primary transsexualism like being this way was something I had to have. Then they said it was gender dysphoria syndrome then they said it was gender identity disorder. They're still making up their minds but I don't think they'll ever really understand?
Dear Friendly moderators. This is my first post but I have already read these threads! Thank you!
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