What I Wanted to Wear: Getting Real, Getting Free
https://medium.com/gender-2-0/what-i-wanted-to-wear-getting-real-getting-free-2c7e10b52510
Medium/Kai Cheng
5 days ago
"The day I decided that I had the right to use the word "woman" in reference to myself was the day I wore a dress and was harassed in public for the first time. Before that, I had always considered myself an extremely feminine gay man, occasionally genderqueer, or maybe a closet cross-dresser.
Privately, I longed for access to the words that I felt would grant me the magic, the courage, to finally become the person I dreamed about being: trans woman. The phrase belonged, it seemed to me, to a sisterhood of distant others, women stronger and worthier and prettier than I could ever be. I walked away from that first transphobic encounter on the street in my seven-dollar dress with my head held high — now, I too had suffered and survived this rite of passage. I was a real trans woman."
Great article. I also struggled and sometimes still struggle with the grounds on which I apply the word "woman" to myself.