Hey everyone! Youve probably noticed I changed my name. Facebook is a weird place to post heavy, personal stuff like this, but its important to me that people know whats up in my life. Otherwise, I guess, why are we following each other on Facebook? So, heres the deal. Im transgender. I think its important for me to publicly declare that; trans people get an incredibly raw deal in society. Did you know what more than %50 of trans youth attempt suicide by the age of 20? I believe any decent person would feel sorrowful at hearing that. Theres widespread employment & housing discrimination, direct abuse from law enforcement and denial of basic legal rights, staggering levels of violence (including murder), regular verbal harassment, refusal of needed medical services, and a host of other things that are too complex for me to get into here. I know it isnt my responsibility to stop transphobia, but I have an opportunity here to to stand up and make myself visible (which is equivalent to making myself a target, I know). Heres some terms for you, so you know what the hell Im talking about. Im transgender. That means I am not the gender that the doctor assigned to me at birth. The doctor got it wrong! Most of you are cisgender: that means you happen to feel comfortable with the gender the doctors slapped on you at birth. Im a genderqueer girl or woman. Girl: that concept should be fairly familiar. Genderqueer is more vague, it means that binary notions of gender (being strictly male or female) cant describe my gender. A lot of people use it to mean they are a gender besides just male or female, or maybe a blend of different genders. Its a term thats been used in the LGBT community for a couple decades. When I use it, I mean that Im first and foremost a woman but that doesnt fully describe me because theres some bits of guy thrown in there, but thats not nearly as big a part of who I am. Ill ask that people stop referring to me as he/him or as man/dude/guy/etc. Its actually very painful to hear that! You can use either they/them/their as singular pronouns or she/her, and also person/girl/woman/etc. Also, just to be clear... my name is Madison. :) Thanks for reading all this! If you want to talk about this Im an open book about my experiences; I think its important for people to hear our stories. If any of you, or someone you care about, have any feelings about your gender that youre tossing around, please feel free to message and we can talk. I had to go through this alone and it was hell, I dont want anyone to have to figure this shit out without help or support. Thanks so much everyone! -Madison P.S. I have one request of each of you: please read this list of tips about how to be a good ally to transgender people. Its incredibly important, you have the ability make this world a safer place for people like me.
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 18:10:56 +0000
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