Trans* What? Gender is Gender, and that is the end of it. Not.

“...one’s self identified gender is necessarily more legitimate than the one that is rather naively assigned to them by others.”

-Julia Serano, Whipping Girl, (2009)

And so starts a great resource for information on transgender/transsexual people. This is truly a must peruse website. Why you ask? Well, because someone you know or will soon know is a transgender person. About 1.5% of the population on average. So, out of every 100 people you know or meet, more than one will be transgender. Could be you for all I know.

I heard a part of a program this afternoon on NPR about trans people, and wondered all the way through it what was bothering me. Not my identity. Not my acceptance, because you will be hard pressed to find anyone more accepting of everyone than me. No, I finally figured out it was my ignorance about this community. So I set out to learn a bit, and found a few good places to look. The Trans Awareness Project, http://www.transawareness.org/index.html, is a good place to start.The site has frank and accessible discussions on almost everything you will think to ask. Keep in mind that trans people have a ridiculously high suicide rate. A bit over 40% of trans try suicide some time, and many succeed. Why? The pressure of a society that is gender bound to think of only “boy” or “girl” and to think that anyone else is sick. Not so.

I have maintained for years, based on my biological background, that gender and gender identity is a sliding scale, with the absolutes of boy and girl at the ends and everyone else somewhere in between. I still think this is true, and hope the rest of the world will catch up with me sooner rather than later. And don’t think “sexual orientation”  and gender identity are related. They are not.

If you are at all curious about the trans community, visit the TAP website linked above, and begin the process of becoming educated. You, (and me too) are never to old to learn, and never to old to put aside old prejudices and enter the human race. Try it. You may like it.

 Image: The Trans Awareness Project website