They’re Your Rights-If Your Not Transgender

Every week in my Advanced Issues class a group of students presents for about 45 minutes. Last week’s presentation was amazing; the group presented on Transgender Rights.

Coming from the Bible Belt, people didn’t really “come-out” all that often back home. In fact I didn’t know any openly gay or lesbian people until college. Now this has changed and one of my good friends is bisexual. I’ll admit that it is something I don’t completely understand, but my status as heterosexual and hers as bisexual doesn’t impact our friendship in any way.

However being transgendered is a complete mystery to me. I have no frame of reference for it. A person I suspect was transgender came into the restaurant one day and I had no idea how to address them, as a “Sir” or a “Ma’am?” I couldn’t figure out which “box” to put the person into. But after hearing this presentation I learned sooooo much and it made me consider what life would be like for a transgender person.

For starters being transgender has nothing to do with your sexuality. I also learned that if you declare yourself transgender you lose your right to marry and adopt. I am not sure what being transgender has to with your ability to be in a relationship stable enough for marriage, but apparently the government thinks there is a link.

Like I said, listening to this made me think about what it must be like to feel like you were born the wrong sex, and then how liberating it could be to come to terms with that and make the necessary changes. I love being female. I like wearing pretty clothes, nice jewelry and having long hair. I played with Barbie’s growing up and read Baby-Sitter Club books. The idea that someone who was biologically female wouldn’t relate to these type things, past the stage of being a tomboy, never really crossed my mind. Yet these people exist and struggle with this issue across the world. Further, back to my “box” comment, if I had a mini-heart attack trying to figure out how address this person, then just…wow. I can’t imagine how they feel trying to categorize themselves.

This was one of those presentations that stick with you. It made you consider what you think is important. And while my faith traditionally would frown on this lifestyle, I disagree with this position. Who you are is who you are. If you are a moral straight person, awesome. If you are a LGBT person with good values, that’s great too. And that’s something this presentation really made me realize on a deeper level.