Living life as somebody else

[Shana A]

Living life as somebody else

By Sarah Foster
Special to OnMilwaukee.com
Published Oct. 9, 2010 at 11:04 a.m.

http://onmilwaukee.com/living/articles/genderconfusion.html?24002

We all wonder from time to time if we are the person we're supposed to be. Usually we base the answer on our career, relationships, lifestyle and successes, and sometimes if we don't like the path our lives have taken, we have the power to change most of it.

What if change wasn't that easy or even realistic? Imagine what life would feel like knowing you aren't who you should be and that taking the steps to become 'the real you' means risking every one of your relationships, as well as your job and your health. For transgender individuals this is a reality. They've spent their lives living as a gender they feel is the opposite of who they truly are inside and for some the struggle is a lonely and painful process.

I went to high school with a young woman besieged with just this issue.

[Hurtfulsplash]

We all wonder from time to time if we are the person we're supposed to be. Usually we base the answer on our career, relationships, lifestyle and successes, and sometimes if we don't like the path our lives have taken, we have the power to change most of it.

What if change wasn't that easy or even realistic? Imagine what life would feel like knowing you aren't who you should be and that taking the steps to become 'the real you' means risking every one of your relationships, as well as your job and your health. For transgender individuals this is a reality. They've spent their lives living as a gender they feel is the opposite of who they truly are inside and for some the struggle is a lonely and painful process.

Sometimes I don't know how to word it but this sounds like a good way to describe what I feel to people that can't feel what I do.

[Gia]

It is roughly estimated that between 100 and 500 gender-reassignment surgeries are preformed in the United States annually. Sex change surgery is expensive. The cost for male to female reassignment is $7,000 to $24,000. The cost for female to male reassignment can exceed $50,000.

Even if everything else was green, cost is still a factor that still stops people from being themselves.