Two Questions for Transgender people

a reply to: TrappedPrincess

Ah! A phrase akin to suggesting that one has True Grit?

There's a reason why my handle is what it is

Thank you anyway!

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: Crazy Diamond

Thats very nice of you to say Crazy Diamond.

I keep trying, although I am never sure that I am succeeding, but its nice to hear that all the same!

Even though I don't know you personally, I've been lurking these boards for many years and I've read many of your posts, and judging by their content, trust me, you are succeeding.

I am not religious but often read threads in conspiracies in religion subforum. Whenever someone starts bashing all Christians as if they were all the same, first thing that pops in my mind is "C'mon guys, what about that TrueBrit guy, he surely is great example of a true Christian".
Keep it up.

a reply to: Crazy Diamond

Thanks CD...

I will endeavour to do just that!

a reply to: JadeStar

Age is just a relative way to measure how much life you have lived. Your real age is in your mind!

Thank you for the faux acceptance though! I just got a little younger today!

Take care and keep your chin up. You have a lot of wonderful life to live. Good luck on your current relationship...

originally posted by: Bayne
a reply to: TrueBrit

Though... not every Trans woman does have body image issues. Someone who has their gender identity respected as a child, goes on hormone blockers to avoid the wrong puberty then hormone therapy to go through the right puberty and elects not to have surgery (yep these people do exist) would have avoided those trans-specific body issues you worry about and may only have the ordinary body-issues pretty much all women gain from the psychological impact of the body-negative 'beauty' industry.

Hi Bayne, not only do these people exist but someone almost like that has been posting in this thread. I don't know if you know this but you just pretty much described my life, except i did have the surgery.

BTW: There is a very good show which just started on TLC about a 14 year old girl who is going through what I went through called I Am Jazz. My boyfriend and I just watched the first episode last night with my parents.

It's very educational for those not familiar with these issues.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: solarjetman

The only thing that concerns me, is whether or not my personal choices are going to be respected without an assumption that they represent some phobia or other. Other than that, I am golden.

I respect your personal choices. I would however caution against automatically assuming that all women of transgender history have body issues. As Bayne said, if taken care of early enough, as my family did with me, then its quite likely she will have no issues with her body. The only one I had is behind me.

The only deal breaker perhaps would be if you were looking for her to have children but there are also some women not of transgender history who can not have children as well.

Anyway, you're a good guy TrueBrit (i typically like your posts on ATS) and no you are not a transphobe. If you are guilty of anything it might just be the assumption i mentioned above but that is a common misconception which is fairly innocuous. So don't worry. You're "safe" as they say on your side of the pond.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Oh it's clear that you're not transphobic (just simply missing the forest for the trees as I said earlier). Still, your quest strikes me as very romantic, and I have a really big soft spot for romance. I... really do hope you find that rare gem of a woman who's refused the "Kool-Aid." I really do. I'd hate to see you wind up alone.

I myself had a particularly rough childhood, and I've suffered a lot of scars for it. I think transitioning will ultimately heal a lot of those for me. But it's clear that you outstripped even me in torturous existence. If Ekron's an artist in suffering, myself a professional, you have a definite doctorate and came out ahead! Most of my bullies were verbal in nature; I never experienced any of the truly sadistic physical attacks you described. It's a shock that there could be that many people that evil and messed up.

Gold medal to you for getting through it.



Oh, and a fellow rum lover! Hahaha!

originally posted by: Bayne
a reply to: EKron

Bayne, I like a lot of what you've had to say but don't know where you are getting your numbers from because they all seem high? 1/30 may be or have transgender feelings or aspirations but if you take 50,000 as the estimated number of post operative transsexual women in the US compared to the total cis female population, I think we're talking something higher than 1/30. I don't do math.

Oh i'll happily cite sources. First we have computer pioneer Professor Lynn Conway's estimate that 1 in 500 people get surgery and 1 in 50 are non-binary Trans (she suses the terms Transsexual and Lifelong Crossdresser, but the neurology evidence supports them all actually being Transgender) ai.eecs.umich.edu...

Lynn Conway of IEEE? Wow.

*LEGEND*

originally posted by: Kojiro
a reply to: TrueBrit

Oh it's clear that you're not transphobic (just simply missing the forest for the trees as I said earlier). Still, your quest strikes me as very romantic, and I have a really big soft spot for romance. I... really do hope you find that rare gem of a woman who's refused the "Kool-Aid." I really do. I'd hate to see you wind up alone.

I myself had a particularly rough childhood, and I've suffered a lot of scars for it. I think transitioning will ultimately heal a lot of those for me. But it's clear that you outstripped even me in torturous existence. If Ekron's an artist in suffering, myself a professional, you have a definite doctorate and came out ahead!

Most of my bullies were verbal in nature; I never experienced any of the truly sadistic physical attacks you described. It's a shock that there could be that many people that evil and messed up.

Gold medal to you for getting through it.

Oh, and a fellow rum lover! Hahaha!

I just want to *hug* all three of you!

"From broken people,"
"And broken dreams,"
"Come beginnings"
"Of sewing seams."

some silly lyric i wrote.

a reply to: JadeStar

I could try to find a really, really discrete location.

Here is a question for you Bayne. It's a little OT but i'm curious to hear your answer:

So like by now you know that I am a young woman who completed her transition including surgery all before the age of 18. I am currently in college studying Astronomy & Astrobiology and have participated in a number of programs for select student. If I were to continue on my current trajectory there's a fairly good non-zero chance that I might become someone of note in the future.

That said, unlike you, I am not out. I feel no moral obligation to be out. But I *do* feel that I can do a lot for our common interests "from the inside".

Of course to do that would mean that I would have to achieve great things and be exception. I know full well, there are glass ceilings in a lot of the world. Academia has it's own.

Even without being out as someone of transsexual history, I already would be like a double-minority in my future profession.

So, with that in mind....


Do you feel I would do more good for our common interests of trans acceptance if I were publicly out now as a student or were to remain stealth, only to come out at some future time (like maybe 20 years from now) after having perhaps achieved some level of prestige through perhaps making important discoveries or key contributions to the fields of astronomy, comparative planetology, astrobiology, etc?

Or would I do more good to remain stealth for life?

originally posted by: Kojiro
a reply to: JadeStar

I could try to find a really, really discrete location.

Coffee again is it?

originally posted by: BendingTheTruth
a reply to: JadeStar

Age is just a relative way to measure how much life you have lived. Your real age is in your mind!

Thank you for the faux acceptance though! I just got a little younger today!

Take care and keep your chin up. You have a lot of wonderful life to live. Good luck on your current relationship...

Thank you, and you're right, i think probably past a certain point the phrase "age is just a number" probably holds true. I am excited for the future and the fact that a 56 year old can learn a few new tricks and has no problem with the mental gymnastics involved with the whole idea of a brain not matching the body at birth tells me there is great hope that society at large will soon understand and accept transgender and all people for that matter, a lot better than it has.

So thank you for your best wishes and good luck in your marriage. I look forward to my own big day some day!

a reply to: JadeStar

Coffee! Yes. If there's one thing I love more on this planet than good clothes and rum, it's coffee!

originally posted by: Crazy Diamond

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: Crazy Diamond

Thats very nice of you to say Crazy Diamond.

I keep trying, although I am never sure that I am succeeding, but its nice to hear that all the same!

Even though I don't know you personally, I've been lurking these boards for many years and I've read many of your posts, and judging by their content, trust me, you are succeeding.

I am not religious but often read threads in conspiracies in religion subforum. Whenever someone starts bashing all Christians as if they were all the same, first thing that pops in my mind is "C'mon guys, what about that TrueBrit guy, he surely is great example of a true Christian".
Keep it up.

I agree *totally*. While I am not a Christian my parents are both devout Christians so I'd find myself often saying "ok but not all Christians are like that" on ATS because I love my parents and read enough of the Bible to know what the true spirit of it is. Even though I may not share my parent's spiritual beliefs I respect all people's personal spirituality and TrueBrit from what I have learned from reading his posts represents the true spirt of what Christianity is supposed to be all about.

a reply to: JadeStar
No problem... You take care sweetheart, your day will come! Just tell that boyfriend to get off the dime and get on his knee and propose, before he misses out on potentially the best thing he's ever had in his entire life.

Just remember, if you don't mind, it don't matter!

originally posted by: Kojiro
a reply to: JadeStar

Coffee! Yes. If there's one thing I love more on this planet than good clothes and rum, it's coffee!

You know in some parts of the world, you get rum in your coffee. And in other parts you can get coffee flavored rum!

originally posted by: BendingTheTruth
a reply to: JadeStar
No problem... You take care sweetheart, your day will come! Just tell that boyfriend to get off the dime and get on his knee and propose, before he misses out on potentially the best thing he's ever had in his entire life.

Oh, i would never ask him to propose! How romantic would that be!? lol But don't worry he's been hinting at it and my parents have been dropping subtle hints to him when he's over so it probably won't be long.

Just remember, if you don't mind, it don't matter!

EXACTLY1

originally posted by: anonentity
a reply to: TrueBrit

It certainly wasn't any fun , its a wonder we all didn't have post traumatic stress after going to school. The time that should have been spent learning was spent watching your back from the bullies.

I wonder why this was even allowed? I mean like hearing what you all and Ekron went through back in those days I just can't imagine how awful that must have been! Why did parents and school administrators allow all of that?

I mean I still remember the first day of school of the year when I was first allowed to start attending as a girl. Yes, I got some teasing from a lot of guys (and a few girls), yes it was annoying but it was not too distracting from my academics and it dissipated after maybe the first few weeks I think because it was made clear to the bullies that they shouldn't be treating me that way.

Why didn't they do that in your case?

originally posted by: solarjetman
Sorry, I'd change it but as I don't make too many threads I don't actually know how to actually do this. Mods?!?

I didn't mean to come off as the PC police but I see you went to the trouble of getting the thread title changed. Good job and thanks to you and the mods.

See, your thread has been informational!