Photo by Bryan Derballa
Being Transgender is not what anyone should want. It is hard work and painstakingly challenging. There are only 700,000 transgender people in the world, and of those people, 41% of them have attempted suicide. We live in an unaccepting society, who will rather see us dead than let us be ourselves. It is the real you fighting what you were given at birth. I know many people who simply don’t understand what being transgender feels like because they are not trapped in the wrong body. They fear what they don’t understand
Society makes being transgender seem like a walk in the park. They only show the physical problems never how many times you change your clothes in the morning. They don’t realize that many trans people can not afford reassignment surgery, which on average cost $15,5000. That’s not small money at all, that means that many trans people can’t be who they truly are.
The media doesn’t show the amount of times trans people cry or the amount of times they just think to give up because it would be easier than trying to fight.
Transgender people have always existed but only in the last 5 years it has become more accepted by people and more cases are shown in the media. It’s not that we are a new trend, it’s that now we have representation and we can put a name to how we feel. Being trans isn’t easy, 78 percent of transgender people have endured physical or sexual violence at school . Along with constant bullying, many trans people face a lot of financial hardships. The typical income of a trans person is $10,000 sometimes less. Trans people are unemployed at twice the rate of the general population. 90 percent said they faced some form of transgender-based discrimination in the work place. Trans murders are increasing yearly, of the 20 LGBT people murdered in 2014, sixteen were people of color, according to the NCAVP; 11 were transgender women, and 10 were transgender women of color. As you can see, being trans isn’t what anyone would want, but it’s the price we have to pay to live the life we want.
My future is bright I have somewhat accepting parents and I have loving friends that respect me as Rowan. I sometimes feel so alone on this journey but I have to put my thoughts in perspective. I know I am not alone there numerous other people on the same road. We all may have different obstacles and may want something different. But we are all trying to make whatever we want happen. And I know I am very privileged to be me and have everything I have.
Trans isn’t what I want, but it is who I am. I’m proud of it.
