QuoteNow, how would one 'popularize' the concept of transsexuals so that more people would consider them to be 'normal'?
EDUCATION. It simply comes down to this basic fact that unless the very young when they first gain awareness of themselves as a person, that they be introduced to the idea of a 'mixed' sex, third sex if you like that straddles male and female. This would be a good starting point because the youngster will grow up not dulled to the thought that there are only the two accepted sexes but that there are people that are 'inbetweenies' that shall one day become a true boy or a true girl.
My recent experiences during transition tell me that if youngsters knew of us and that we are not queer, do not look odd for the fun of it but that we are individuals just like they are with the same colour blood and that we eat the same foods and drink water just like they do, then the amount of ill informed comments and blatent abuse may never have happened. Okay, kids are cruel beasts, especially among themselves and a teenager struggling with gender identity is likely to suffer most but is it not obvious to anyone that unless these kids are educated at the very earliest stage of schooling about gender, much in the same manner and intensity as Math, Language, Faith, Reasoning and Comprehension, we shall continue to struggle.
I also believe that we as Transsexuals (pure) must be responsible to ourselves. This comment may excite some of you into a rage and this is an unintended consequence for which I apologise but I have seen many TS/TV folk in my locality that frankly need to be given a good talking to because they are doing themselves no good at all and many of us great harm in the eyes of the general public at large and the media in particular. I only have to think back a couple of years when I was horrified by the media reaction to Pete Burns on Celebrity Big Brother, his attempts at looking girly seriously harmed my own early days of transition because I switched to fulltime female at the time those images were prime time on television.
It must also be said here whilst in context and talking of these matters, the more of us that take the momentous and very scary decision to come forward and go fulltime as females ( males in the case of female to male, an equally tough proposition i am sure ), then it is likely that our presence within our local communities with diminish the shock and amusement factor in due course and we shall eventually be accepted as the humans that we are. By that, may I offer an illustration? I was born in Birmingham England in the late 1950's. It was in an area of the city considered at that time to be exclusive and desirable to live in among the locality. It was also at the time when we began a programme of immigration of workers from our then colonies in the West Indies and the Subcontinent of India. When they arrived, the locals were extremely hostile simply because they were different by dint of skin colour and the smells from their cooking. Today, that area is now exclusively 'ethnic' and the foods are now a staple of English cuisine. Given time and tolerace, and this is where I started, education, we shall become an accepted part of our local commnities. It has already become this way in Thailand, certain parts of India and if I am correct, most of Northern Europe, indeed there are now laws in force in UK that protect transsexual rights.
I started this post with a quote, I cannot quite figure out 'how to popularise' us. I doubt it will happen soon, I fear Gays have problems even after many years of 'acceptance' and legal protection. However, once all of this has been tackled, then maybe the time will come when a transwoman might be offered all the medical assistance to get pregnant as any genetic female currently enjoys. I hope and pray that I am alive when the day comes when one of us gives birth
