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After seeing all the hub-bub in the current news about the attacks on children who are transgendered I'd like to say something...
I was a transgendered child.
It was not fun.
Back in the 1960s there really wasn't much solid information for people like me. There were jokes, put downs, threats of violence... not to mention the stigma of being, well... crazy. So I hid. I denied. I tried to fit in *someway* with my biological gender. It didn't work, it didn't feel comfortable and I'm not sure how many people were really fooled by my acting male. No Oscars for me.
I finally got therapy and the medical services to make me feel comfortable in my life. I fully transitioned in the 1980s. I'm better than I was before.
It's gotten better for trans people over the decades and I am grateful that it has.
Now, I see people trying to move the weigh of the government onto trans children and their parents. I say, Enough! Persecuting children for who they are is unfair, mean and cruel. Trans people are a tiny fraction of the population and some people want to bring in the police, the courts, the entire system of government to rule our lives and make us suffer.
They want us to suffer because we exist. That's not right, it's not fair and it's just cruel and bullying.
What kind of people bully children? The lowest kind, that's who.
We know a lot more about being trans because it was *studied*, investigated, researched. For those who are trans living as the 'brain gender' _makes their lives better_. THAT is the Science. This is something that is not taken lightly by the professionals who deal with trans kids. They are careful in their approach. They follow standards developed by studying the results of past trans people and how they adjusted. Just the facts.
The facts are - for many of us, transitioning *works*.
As for trans kids in sports? The charge that trans girls will dominate girls sports is not supported by the facts. We have one... count that... ONE... example of that. I was on a swim team. I wasn't very good... but I watched a few who were damn good swimmers excel beyond what us other kids could do. They were built long, lean and lanky... perfect for freestyle and butterfly strokes. They set local records than stood for years. Gender may not matter if you're the perfect swimmer.
Persecution of trans kids is gender fascism of the worse kind. We should recognize that and call it out when we see it.
-m
I was a transgendered child.
It was not fun.
Back in the 1960s there really wasn't much solid information for people like me. There were jokes, put downs, threats of violence... not to mention the stigma of being, well... crazy. So I hid. I denied. I tried to fit in *someway* with my biological gender. It didn't work, it didn't feel comfortable and I'm not sure how many people were really fooled by my acting male. No Oscars for me.
I finally got therapy and the medical services to make me feel comfortable in my life. I fully transitioned in the 1980s. I'm better than I was before.
It's gotten better for trans people over the decades and I am grateful that it has.
Now, I see people trying to move the weigh of the government onto trans children and their parents. I say, Enough! Persecuting children for who they are is unfair, mean and cruel. Trans people are a tiny fraction of the population and some people want to bring in the police, the courts, the entire system of government to rule our lives and make us suffer.
They want us to suffer because we exist. That's not right, it's not fair and it's just cruel and bullying.
What kind of people bully children? The lowest kind, that's who.
We know a lot more about being trans because it was *studied*, investigated, researched. For those who are trans living as the 'brain gender' _makes their lives better_. THAT is the Science. This is something that is not taken lightly by the professionals who deal with trans kids. They are careful in their approach. They follow standards developed by studying the results of past trans people and how they adjusted. Just the facts.
The facts are - for many of us, transitioning *works*.
As for trans kids in sports? The charge that trans girls will dominate girls sports is not supported by the facts. We have one... count that... ONE... example of that. I was on a swim team. I wasn't very good... but I watched a few who were damn good swimmers excel beyond what us other kids could do. They were built long, lean and lanky... perfect for freestyle and butterfly strokes. They set local records than stood for years. Gender may not matter if you're the perfect swimmer.
Persecution of trans kids is gender fascism of the worse kind. We should recognize that and call it out when we see it.
-m
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