If you don't know who Elizabeth Kubler-Ross is, she wrote all about the emotional stages of dying and death. Being trans isn't about dying, but the idea is triggered in my head that it is a type of death of sorts. I think maybe shedding a skin is a better idea of what it feels like.
Ever since I have finally for sure for sure come out as a man, things have really changed and I've realized I have a lot to discover about myself. For one thing, I'm coming out as a bisexual man. THAT is quite the turn from being a lesbian. Also I've got to say, I'm still more attracted to women than to men, which brings up all kinds of bad feelings the queer community seems to have about bisexuals. It's an entirely different set of identity issues which I have to deal with now, like getting a new deck of cards.
And yet I never felt that I fit in as a lesbian. I fit in as butch, and that's totally a different thing because that's more about gender presentation than sexual orientation. I was always getting weird looks about why I identified with and was attracted to bisexual women more than other lesbians.
That all being said, the lesbian community was a great place to grow up in, especially in the 90's. I don't know why. Maybe because that's when a huge wave of transgendered activism and art suddenly poured out of that era. I could relate to that far more easily than the lesbian community, for obvious reasons, but I still think there was kind of a pansexual playfulness to the times that I latched onto.
I doubt you can find a single lesbian in this day and age who hasn't seen a friend decide to transition. I know there is always a sort of sadness at seeing ANOTHER butch decide to be a man. Maybe I didn't transition earlier because I didn't want to cause sadness, even though it made for a conflicted me. I think a lot of transgendered people were kind of like "Okay, when is he coming out already? Let's place bets!"
When I was nineteen I think I really knew I was probably going to transition, but I put it off. I just remember very clearly looking at myself in a mirror and while I have a nice female body, realizing it still wasn't what I was envisioning for myself. The breasts especially. I really never knew how to deal with those. And the periods, I never liked my period because it seemed like such a pain in the ass.
There are some weird questions I have to ask another trans person about how my body will be after hormones, but maybe they are too intimate to list here. I know I'm excited about how certain things will develop, like my voice and my facial features and hair and muscles and things like that.
Right now life is kind of weird because I'm in a ladies care home. LADIES!!! I still go to the women's washroom because I'm still very very female bodies. I'm pretty much wearing a packer all the time. That's a type of useless flaccid male genitalia made out of various sundry household goods, I'm hoping to buy a real packer sometime soon. I haven't bound my breasts yet because I'm waiting to try and make one with my friends Cindy and Megan. Chest surgery is going to cost about $4000. There's a surgeon in town who does them. I have no idea when I'll have the cash to do that.
And the hormones, if my doctor is sympathetic enough I might be able to start on them soon. It takes about 2 years for the big effect, and changes continue for about ten years. Some men say it's like going through a second puberty. And my puberty was bleak!!!!
It's also funny because I am transitioning to a feature filmmaker as well. I'm going to be making an hour long documentary about researching my families various homelands AND the process of transitioning. It will be funny I hope, parts of it anyway.
Then of course there is the fact that violence happens a lot to trans people. Maybe that's where the Kubler-Ross stuff caught my eye. And there is a lot of depression and suicide that can occur. All these landmines in the way of me just trying to be true to myself and become someone I feel comfortable with. It's a lot to take in.
And it doesn't help that a Nelly Furtado song on the radio keeps making me feel weird!!!!
This is a wicked video "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley
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