Helping the T in LGBT
When you were born, your parents welcomed a healthy baby boy or girl into the world. Depending on your sex, you were given a pink or blue blanket, and “male” or “female” was written on your birth certificate. From then on, specific gender roles are assigned to you, and you are expected to follow societies rules associated with those roles. You’re expected to identify and present yourself in ways that mirror your sex and gender. This is not a problem, for most of us. We have no qualms with our gender identity. You may be a girl and do things that aren’t particularly girly, or a boy who enjoys things that are traditionally feminine, but otherwise you are content in the gender identity that you’ve known from birth.
“When it comes to gender, we live in a binary society. Individuals are expected to be either male or female. But gender is not black and white. Many of us do not meet societal definitions of a male or female (Keppler).” So what if you grew up feeling conflicted with the idea of binary and aren’t comfortable with your gender identity? You were born a girl, and everyone around you expects you to act like a girl, but you feel as if you are a boy. It’s more serious than just wanting to be a tomboy, or rough housing with the guys. You feel as if you were born in the wrong body entirely. You were meant to be male. You struggle with this idea for a long time, and it’s very difficult. Eventually you find out that this is called being transgender. Transgender is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity doesn’t match their sex assigned at birth (Nat. Center for Trans, pg 1). You want to tell the people close to you, but are scared of how they will react and what they will say. There is no one like you that you can look up to for advice, in the media or in literature; probably not in your circle of friends either. You feel