My body, my choice

You’ll never truly know what it is like to be transgender. That’s ok. That’s good even. I don’t want other people to deal with the pain, insecurity and hurt I have. I don’t want you to worry about whether you’ll be hate-crimed in some foreign country you’re traveling to or even when you step out of your house. You shouldn’t need to wake up every day and see all the anti-trans rhetoric being masqueraded as people protecting bathrooms or women’s rights or children or sports. These people believing they are the righteous saviors of humanity. All the while people seemingly forgetting that I’m part of humanity also.

I didn’t choose to be transgender. As much as you didn’t choose to be cis-gendered. I know that is hard for people to understand. It’s hard for me to understand. Why am I trans? I don’t know. Something in my biology is different. Maybe I have a mutation in some genes or was exposed to some environmental factor. I’ll probably never know. But what I do know is that I’m just doing my best with the life I am given. Understand, every single day a trans person lives their life, they go out into the world facing down the stares, judgement and sometimes hateful actions of others. One doesn’t become trans because they want attention or positive feedback despite what Joe Rogan thinks. The affirmations are few compared to the constant requirement to defend who I am to the world everyday. I’m trans for me. My fucking body, my fucking choice. Trans people aren’t trying to usurp your rules and rights. Instead, we are just trying to EXIST within a society that is built around a sex/gender binary that doesn’t seem to benefit anyone.

It’s hard to watch people, friends, use rhetoric that is eerily similar to what was said against homosexuality. Converting children, bathroom fear mongering, just stop already. It sucks to see humanity repeat history so soon. I want people to realize that no matter what you say or do, we will progress forward as society and become more inclusive, not less. And when that change comes are you going to be proud of the things you said and did?

I don’t want to be a trans activist. It annoys me to even write these things. But what choice do I have when my mere existence has become a major topic in the culture wars?