Gender Revisited

We all have read the recent wealth of news stories about transpeople and the transcommunity. Or you may have just passed over it, scanned the article, half-listened to the tv or radio story, or simply turned to something else. Many people find the issue of individual gender difficult to understand, so they use some belief or dogma, often called religion or faith, to decide our sex and gender are fixed at birth and it's our lot in life to accept it, right or wrong.

I saw this image for a story in the Denver Magazine. it is probably one of the best articles about a transperson. It's only in recent years we're being informed that gender is a few people isn't what it seems at birth and at a young age, but then expresses its true self about age 5-6. It's always been there, because it's about being human and human diversity, but it's only now being in the public spotlight.

And it's only in recent times the professionals are coming our of the professional cloud and standing up to say it's not only there but normal, and not abnormal as has been taught in schools and portrayed in the media. It is lived by the ~1% of people in this country. Yes, one in a hundred, not the one in thousands or more as described before. And why has it been hidden and misportrayed?

Morality. Pure and simple professional morality. Those very same professional who have taken an oath to help and heal were excercising their personal morality which disagreed with the reality of transpeople. They haven't even tried to understand, let alone help and heal. It's never been a mental problem. It's been about finding affirmation in being oneself as you know and want to be. The mind isn't the problem, the body is.

It is that simple. Children haven't learned to know anything but themselves. But finding themselves at odds, and the rest of the world telling them they're diviant or abnorma. But they do learn to hide and disguise themselves. And they begin the long journey of self-hate. They're not the cause, the rest are the cause. They simply want the freedom to be. Is that so hard to understand? Is that so hard to accept? Is it so hard to see it in the child? Or the adults?

And that's the whole issue. It is what it is, not much else to say about it. So, please, read the story. And thank you Lucia and your parents.