Many baby boomers have lived with dysphoria their entire lives but have yet to begin living authentically. I can tell you that as hard as it was for me to get here, it has been truly worth it and it has done my internal happiness a world of good.
The first steps are difficult but once you get going there is no turning back and every little victory adds to the experience and joy of being yourself. Don't wait to come clean to others and realize that as scary as things may look, it is far scarier to have lived an entire life with unfulfilled dreams of being the person you are inside. At this point I cannot imagine taking even one step backwards and wish you the courage to always move forward in a direction that honours your identity as a transgender person.
Intolerance is everywhere on this planet and it is often brutally ugly. People are killed everyday simply for being different and being true to themselves. All the more reason to never let anyone tell you how to live. I know that my being transgender robbed me of my confidence when I was younger as I grappled with what to do about it.
Transgender people in New Zealand face far worse discrimination than any of us do here and they are the butt of slurs and insults on the street simply for being who they are. I don't know about you, but it just makes me all the more militant and strengthens my resolve to ignore the uneducated masses....
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/101901279/the-entrenched-transphobia-facing-transgender-kiwis
The first steps are difficult but once you get going there is no turning back and every little victory adds to the experience and joy of being yourself. Don't wait to come clean to others and realize that as scary as things may look, it is far scarier to have lived an entire life with unfulfilled dreams of being the person you are inside. At this point I cannot imagine taking even one step backwards and wish you the courage to always move forward in a direction that honours your identity as a transgender person.
Intolerance is everywhere on this planet and it is often brutally ugly. People are killed everyday simply for being different and being true to themselves. All the more reason to never let anyone tell you how to live. I know that my being transgender robbed me of my confidence when I was younger as I grappled with what to do about it.
Transgender people in New Zealand face far worse discrimination than any of us do here and they are the butt of slurs and insults on the street simply for being who they are. I don't know about you, but it just makes me all the more militant and strengthens my resolve to ignore the uneducated masses....
http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/101901279/the-entrenched-transphobia-facing-transgender-kiwis
As usual, you hit the nail on the head. Engaging in anything gender-transgressive scared me most of my life but what counter-balanced and over-ruled that was the fear of dying without having lived. That regret pushes me to take brave steps into the unknown.
ReplyDeletegood for you Ally for you have found the magic formula!
DeleteOne thing I tell others who are apprehensive, for fear of hurting others by coming out, is that waiting does not make the hurt any less - in fact, it probably makes it worse. If you are miserable on the inside, as much as you try to put on a different face for others, the misery still leaks through. For me, I let the lies, deceit, and conniving go on much longer than I should have, but I'm so happy that I came clean when I did. I could not have lived that way for another ten years, and I know that others, especially my family, would not have tolerated my behavior any longer, either. The worst that can happen is not that you've let the world in on your "secret." The worst happens from others finding that you have been keeping a secret from them.
ReplyDeletecoming out for me has been fairly anti-climactic and have not lost any friends over it. People basically don't care and friends you value for their character will not abandon you...
DeleteAre those NZ stories all that different or worse from those in Canada? If so, my hat’s off to Canada. They are pretty much the daily routine for most trans folk in the United States.
ReplyDeleteI must say that I never have any problems at all. Maybe it is because I pass well but still we don't have big incidents here and my city of Montreal is very trans friendly
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