The Transitive Property: The Pros and Cons of Passing
Monday, October 18th, 2010 | By Cristopher Bautista
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2010/10/18/the-transitive-property-the-pros-and-cons-of-passing/I had my first testosterone injection last Wednesday. During the weekend before, I had to pick up my prescription (It's weird how my manhood comes from a teeny little bottle that I get from CVS), and then bring it to Vaden for the injection. It was a rather anticlimactic affair. Within half an hour, the doctor poked a needle into my arm and before I knew it, it was done. I still felt like the same awkward Filipino boy who likes comic books. The only change that would happen, I felt, was that I'd talk with a bit of a deeper voice when I proclaimed my love for Batman.
But it hit me a little while afterward. I realized I will look normal—I will pass as a regular guy for the first time ever. Transgender men are probably the luckiest queer people in that once they've gone through the physical transition, they can blend into the general population (which is why it's so hard to keep track of how many FtMs there are. It's just so hard to tell the difference). In other words, I can live a normal, safe life, relatively free of, you know, getting beaten up, shot at, laughed at, discriminated against, so on and so forth. I will finally be in a position in which everyone I meet will assume right away I'm a bio-guy, and treat me as such. It is a prospect that is strange, exciting and frightening.
