Name: Busting some common myths about being transgender | BBC Ideas
Uploaded: 2020-04-23T04:36:18.000Z
Duration: 6 min 7 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

And I'm proud to say that I'm also a trans woman.

There are all kinds of questions floating around the internet...

Well… good question, because I think there's still a lot of people

that don't fully understand the real basics.

but identify as female and so I'm transgender

because I've changed my exterior gender presentation

An easy working definition to think of is that it is

somebody who doesn't identify with the sex or the gender

you have to be classed as either male or female within six weeks of birth

and that sticks with you then for the rest of your life really.

Unless you're transgender, in which case you identify as something

other than the sex or the gender that you were assigned.

OK, so I came across a really good metaphor

The first time you picked up a pen or a ball or a tennis racket

and you tried to use it, how did you know which hand to use?

You tried it with one hand and then you tried it with the other hand

and one hand felt natural and one hand felt unnatural.

When you're walking around with the wrong gender identity

and the wrong gender expression, you just know it feels unnatural.

My mum, sorry if you're watching this, she didn't react very well.

I'm not trying to say it was easy, because it wasn't at all,

but I think from my point of view I'd probably spent 25 years worrying,

and I'd built it up into this horrible thing in my mind

that nobody would want to know me or be my friend or anything.

Most people were actually just really supportive.

My uncle and aunt - they're great. The first things they asked were,

"What pronouns do we use? And what name do you want me to use for you?"

And, "Is there anything we can do to make it easier?"

There was only one person, and I won't forget them,

she threw her arms around me and sort of squealed and went,

What do you need from me? What can I do?"

Anyone who was quite negative about it, I just chose to cut them off -

but you kind of have to put yourself first in that.

You gender identity is something that's in here - it's in your head,

You know it's kind of in your soul. It's who you feel you are.

Who you feel you are is completely independent

So these are two very distinct things that shouldn't be confused.

I know when I told people that I was trans,

“Oh is this because you want to be with a guy?” And I was just like,

“No, no, no this is nothing to do with that.”

Firstly, the main thing to think about is

Not all trans people will want, or need, surgery.

not focus too much on this idea of surgery,

because most of the time, or a lot of the times, specifically in the media

and it's really quite a personal thing as well. Something that

quite often I get asked by people, “What surgery have I had?”

Be careful about why you're asking that question,

and in nine times out of 10, you probably don't need to know about it.

So steer clear of asking surgery questions,

unless a trans person wants to offer you that information,

or they want some support, maybe they want to talk about it.

But be careful not to ask on your own terms,

because trans bodies are not for entertainment.

How are trans people treated? Like rubbish honestly.

Trans people at the moment are treated as a trend.

We're treated as being abnormal and probably yes, mentally ill as well.

There's lots of ways we're treated that are really terrible.

Trans people suffer a huge amount of discrimination,

and it's really, really frustrating because it doesn't need to happen.

I think if most people could live a week in a trans person's shoes,

It's something that I hope to see happen in my lifetime.

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Busting some common myths about being transgender | BBC Ideas

perspective

individual

expression

straight