This was emailed to me. I thank the author. I don't have the right or anything to the copyright. I hope I am not breaking rules.
We start out early being ostracized by the other kids
because they know we are different. If our brain is female the boys
don't want to hang around a girl and the girls don't want to be with an
icky boy. If we have a male brain and a female body the girls don't want
to be with a pushy boy and the boys see just a girl. Occasionally there
may be a girl who sees the girl in us, or a boy who sees the boy in us
and becomes our friend.
As time goes by we get verbally and physically abused. This abuse comes
from "friends," peers, siblings and parents. It may occur from total
strangers and often goes a far as rape and murder.
We question ourselves with "What's wrong with me?", knowing, but still
not accepting the unthinkable cruelty of being in the "wrong body." We
are alone thinking that we are the only person alive who has this kind of
feelings.
We pray and ask God or another deity to change us or we try to use magic
so what is between our legs finally matches our mind. Disappointed and
frustrated, we are still in the wrong body.
We also get that "What's wrong with you?" "discussion" that is really a
speech, resulting in being coerced into playing football and learning how
to fight because dad wants to "make a man" out of us or mom makes us
learn how to cook, sew, clean house and other feminine things so we will
become good housewives. Sometimes trying to fit in, we do it to
ourselves, usually without success. But that doesn't mean we can fight
our way out of a paper bag or boil water without burning it.
Then our bodies betray us. We become that big hairy clod instead of the
pretty petite girl we see in our mind's eye. For a male in a female body
we are still 5' 2", 98 lbs. soaking wet after bodybuilding.
Many of us learn to hide our true selves by pretending to be the sex our
body says we are. Often we marry and have children. But we are not
honest. We are false witnesses. Internally, the male and female parts
of our bodies and minds are constantly fighting so we never get that
inner peace called contentment.
Some of us suppress our need so strongly that we tell the world that we
are not transgendered. Yet, we feel a need to crossdress. Some of us may
need to have someone else tell us, or even force us to crossdress.
We hide in other ways, too. Some hide with death. I am proud of those
who have kept their promise to me not to commit suicide. One recently
asked me to release her from that promise. I had to tell her only if she
had a medical condition that warrants "Do Not Resuscitate." We might
also do self harm, a "minor" form of suicide. I have heard of some of us
that cut off their testicles, or tried to. Some of us hide by having
unsafe sex resulting in gonorrhea, syphilis, or AIDS. In other words: a
slow form of suicide.
Or we hide behind drugs. Hopefully those of us that go that route end up
in Alcoholics Anonymous, other treatment centers before we
either end up in jail or die.
We often develop various forms of mental illness, as a product of the
extreme shame or bewilderment we have. We are admitted to psychiatric
treatment centers or at least, being driven by guilt or unable to accept
the unacceptable, we talk to psychologists or psychiatrists. Many of us
are depressed and end up on anti depressants.
We also don't know how to relate to others. We are alone so we don't
pick up the interrelationship clues that other teens learn because they
are with friends. As adults we don't know how to deal with people so
find ourselves alone or, because we are afraid of people gravitate
towards rural areas because there are less people to deal with or major
urban areas because there everyone is anonymous.
Many of us are "read" and caught out partially because we are fearful of
being read and caught out. We also might be read because there are few
genetic 6' 2" women. Even after transition we may be mentally looking
over our shoulders to see if anyone is outing us, either maliciously or
unintentionally. Either way we could be hurt and humiliated if it
happens.
We are also more likely to have heart attacks and other diseases caused
by stress due to the never ending battle between the male and female
within us. This stress, beginning in early age, can result in poor
education that leads to low paying jobs with low or no medical coverage.
This leads to our inability to get proper medical care, even for medical
issues not connected to transgender or age dysphoria, creating still more
stress. Our desperation to transition is so great and our finances so
small we may resort to self medication, sometimes through the internet.
Yet, the use of these drugs needs to be monitored or we run the risk of
hurting ourselves or dying.
In the end some of us decide to transition, trying to make our bodies
match our minds, even though it is like building a house starting on the
second floor. Others decide not to. That is O. K., too. As noted
before many of us cannot afford the many expensive procedures that are
necessary to truly transition. We often transition with great
difficulty. The woman trapped in a male body has to somehow hide her
beard. A female to male still has breasts to deal with.
Yet at this time we begin to choose life, and most of us gain that inner
peace because we can be our true selves. It is strange that this is the
time others tell us we are going to Hell when, in reality, we have just
gotten out of it. The hate they give us is sometimes greater than the
contempt that should be reserved for murderers. But they forget that "we
have not come into being to hate and destroy, (but instead) to praise, to
labor and to love." The hate goes so far that some religious institutions
have barred us from even entering their houses of worship or require us
to wear "gender neutral" clothing.
Sometimes there is the issue of how we are addressed. For example, some
of us have been asked, "What does your son or daughter call you?" One
child of a male to female woman stated that she is his father. Both are
proud of that statement. The daughter of another referred to her now
female father as mom and both were happy with the reference. The pronoun
used by the child, parent or sibling may give pride, as in these
examples, or it may hurt the transgendered individual.
In public the male or female reference to us may be at times different.
To the same individual sometimes the "sir" or "madam" may not be
important other times it is. It could even hurt, especially when it
comes from "friends" and family.
. I AM asking
you to follow the words that are almost in the center of the Torah: to
love your neighbor as you love yourself. It is a hallmark of the Western
religions and many of the others. The rest is just commentary.
Notes: References
Biblical quotes paragraphing and references: Haphtarah reading: Isaiah:
51:12-52:12, specifically: 51:21-22 and Mona Vu 52:7
Others: Exodus 20:13 Leviticus 19:18 Numbers 6:25 Deuteronomy 30:
15-19
"The rest is just commentary" is from a quote in the Talmud from Hillel
the Great who lived about 2300 years ago. A man went to Hillel as
challenged, "If you can tell me the whole of the Torah while standing on
one foot I will become a Jew." Hillel responded, "What is hateful to
thee do not do to another. That is the whole of the torah. The rest is
just commentary. Now go study."
"To hate and destroy ..." is a slightly rephrasing of part of the prayer
for peace by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov as told by Rabbi Nathan.
"Building a house ...": a comment by Kaitlin Thompson, an author of
transgender fiction and a member of the "Family"
True Selves: is a book by Mildred L Brown and Chloe Ann Rounsley. I have
been told it is one of the best of many books on the transgendered
condition. I have not read it.
Accepting the unacceptable/Enduring the unendurable: is part of and
paraphrasing a quote by Hirohito in his message of surrender ending WWII:
"We have resolved to endure the unendurable and suffer what is
insufferable."
I thank Holly Hart, Allysson de Merel, Nori Herras, Angela Rasch, Donna
Riley and Heather Rose Brown for their comments, suggestions, editing and
proofing.
I would love to acknowledge the author but the message stands
Cindy James
