The Trials of Social Situations for Transsexual and Transgender People

Social situations can be extremely difficult for someone identifying as a transsexual or transgender person. In youth, you're told that social situations are always awkward for the teenager, but no one ever tells you how awkward it will be for the pre-transition transsexual. Or how painful. The sensation you feel every time you stare into a mirror can perhaps only be described as a division of self: to put it quite simply, you are forced to view an image you don't want to see, an image that simply doesn't match. You do not know this face staring back at you, and yet you are trapped in a body you couldn't want nor like less. That familar sense of repulsion and detachment you feel at seeing your reflection is always there, always waiting. You live in frustration and pain, a person divided - that is to say, a person seperated and constantly uncomfortable within your own skin: On one hand, you're weary that someone will discover your identify as a different gender than the body you were given at birth, while on the other, you desperately want them to acknowledge you for what you know you are, consequences be damned.

"Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil..." This saying greatly applies to what many pre-transitioned people live by on a day to day basis - a code of silence and self-restraint manifesting as day after day of feeling a familiar, silent weight laid heavily on their shoulders. The saying can perhaps be broken down like the following to demonstrate how much of a wall years of voiceless hurt can build: Don't listen (hear - because it will destroy you), don't look (see - because it will devastate you), don't speak (speak - or they will condemn you).

Labels and Preconceptions: The Power of Dismissal