Trans Media Action is having a "Trans Camp" at Channel Four on the 13th January 2012 and they are asking Transgender people to make short videos answering four questions. These videos will be played during the Trans Camp.
I've decided that doing this is a very good idea and am answering these questions. However, the videos must be no more than one minute in length, and those of you who know me know that I tend to waffle on in my videos! Thus, I am going to answer these questions here first to enable me to make my videos as short as possible.
The first question is: "CHILDHOOD: For those of you who knew, what was it like growing up as a trans child?"
Now, I didn't know that I was trans* as a child, but I think that it's important that people are aware that not all trans* people knew they were trans* from childhood.
As a child, I was raised in a very conservative religious American town. The churches told us that being homosexual was a sin, but they didn't really touch on being transgender except to say that it was wrong for a man to dress like a woman. It wasn't until I moved to England that I learned what "transgender" is and it took 10 years of living here before I came to the realisation that I am Transgender - a Female to Male, genderqueer, Bigender person, to be exact. And I'm still learning and still figuring out what applies to me and what doesn't.
To sum up, a lot of transgender people knew from childhood that they were trans, but not all of us.
Great video. I knew I was trans - other kids at school also seemed to know i was trans but none of us knew it was called that. Mostly they called me a poof -not because I showed any interest in boys but because they thought I was more like a girl so therefore HAD to be homosexual. (That and being bad at sport which 'obviously' makes you gay) Even when I heard about transsexuals back in the 1980's you couldn't be a lesbian transwoman so I had to get to 40 before I found out I'm trans. I always knew, just didn't know it was called that.
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Thanks for the comment, Alex. My male self is pretty feminine in body language and likes. For example, I love Rainbow Brite and like dressing in colourful and geeky guy's clothing. I'm pretty camp, as a guy.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a teenager in conservative USA, and found that I was attracted to other female-bodied people as well as male-bodied people, I suppressed it because my church said it was sinful. I knew I didn't quite fit in with either the girls or the guys, but thought it was because of my sexuality, not my gender identity. I had never heard of FTMs and up until a few years ago didn't realise that they existed.
Thank goodness for the internet! I've learned so much about being transgender from searching online and talking with other trans* people.
This was an interesting read and I appreciate your thoughts on this topic Muir. I didn't really know what being trans was until I was at least thirteen and my feelings were still a jumble of emotions at that point. I just felt lost and unable to fit in regardless of who I tried to be when I was younger. It's nice to find common ground with others in the trans community and know that the overused statement, "I've felt this way since I can remember" doesn't make a trans person any more or less trans.
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