Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

While there’s a lot of negativity from all sides around transgender people these days, I wanted to write about a few reasons why I think it’s great to be trans.

A Better Insight into Gender Socialization

While transgender people don’t identify with their biological sex, that doesn’t mean we don’t understand what it’s like to live as that sex. From the time we’re children, we’re socialized based on our biological sex and view the world through that lens.

After we transition, we begin to experience the world based on our identified gender, especially once we get to a point where we pass. It’s often an interesting contrast, and it gives us a unique perspective on how the sexes are treated in our society.

As a transgender man, I spent most of my adult life being treated as female. Before I learned what transgender was, I identified as a tomboy. It was the only thing I knew that fit me. However, I still attempted to be more feminine over the years, trying to fit in. Because I was seen as a woman, I experienced the struggles many women must put up with.

However, I also wasn’t socialized with any of the misogynistic, toxic masculine stereotypes. I was never taught as a child to man up or to hide my emotions. So, my approach to manhood now is definitely from a more emotionally mature perspective than if I had been raised as a male in our society.

I also have experienced how differently women and men are treated. One example that comes to mind is when I was seen as a tomboyish female, I was mostly invisible when I went out. I often wasn’t greeted and on the rare occasion someone would talk to me, I’d get told I’d be prettier if I smiled more. Now that more people view me as male, I often receive a polite head nod from other men, and no one has told me to smile more in a very long time.

A Deeper Mind/Body Connection

As transgender people, we spend a lot of time being introspective, examining and reexamining ourselves. Even before we realize we’re trans, we’re constantly trying to reconcile what’s in our minds with our biology. We tend to have a deeper understanding of ourselves and our bodies. Because of this, I believe that many transgender people are more in-tune with their bodies and can be more readily aware when something is wrong.

I’ve had numerous instances when I was absolutely sure something wasn’t right. My doctors would try to dismiss it. Through my own persistence I was often proven correct and was able to get treatment for the problem before it developed into something worse.

I have always been very aware of my body, especially when I’m in public. Part of that is the self-consciousness that comes with gender dysphoria. While this level of self-consciousness leads us to being somewhat awkward in public, it comes with the benefit of always being hyper aware of our surroundings. I believe this is a good thing, since we’ll be among the first to notice things happening around us.

When I lived in Chicago, I was always aware of potential threats and changed my behavior to mitigate them. I was never caught unawares by strangers who may have wished to do me harm. I also took note when things were happening to others and thankfully, I wasn’t afraid to speak up.

An Excuse to Buy a New Wardrobe

As we grow up, most transgender men are subjected with having to wear feminine clothing, to one degree or another. Transgender women of course have the opposite problem, growing up dressing more masculine even when they may have wanted to wear skirts or dresses on occasion.

For those of us who are transgender males, sometimes our families will tolerate our preference for a tomboyish style and give us the option to dress in a unisex or even masculine style. Unfortunately, not all of us have families like that. Either way, we often will have at least some feminine clothing in our wardrobes. Sadly, transgender females have a harder time getting the option to dress in a way they’d prefer unless they have extremely open-minded parents.

Most of my clothes have always been unisex, although they were always bought from the women’s section. My staple style for years has been hoodies and jeans, although I did wear the occasional dress or skirt. Now that I’ve transitioned, I exclusively shop in the men’s section and have purged my closet of most of my old clothes, especially the more feminine pieces. That necessitated a few shopping trips to buy new clothes.

I may be a trans guy, but that doesn’t mean I have to hate shopping for clothes. I am a gay trans guy after all. Plus, it’s fun to have new clothes to wear.

Are you transgender? What are some other things that make being trans great?