Understanding the Meaning of Being a Transgender

Mostly the world’s population is transgender- that is they feel and agree with the gender that they show on the outside at birth. So when the doctor says “it’s a boy” or “it’s a girl”, the offspring feels the characteristics of the same gender inside as well. Their emotions, feelings, hormones are in tandem with these outer anatomical features. Whereas in some other cases, feelings and internal factors make the person unable to accept their outer bodies. They identify themselves to be the opposite from within (voices, mannerisms, feelings, attractions and sexual preferences), when the world says that their bodies should dictate the way they feel and hence often decide that such people are confused or not “normal”. Being transgender is a very broad term signalling people who were assigned a sex which they don’t feel true to. It isn’t about sexual orientation or the way someone dresses or about surgery or such outer features, it is about how someone feels inside, which is different from how they look or seem to the world. They are also referred to as gender non-conforming, or gender queer people, for they feel differently from what they are thought to be.

Their behaviors and characteristics which they identify with might be socially viewed through a very biased lens as being masculine, feminine, both or neither. They have normal lives otherwise but are bothered with the connotations that they are referred to with- a person born with a penis may have a very feminine approach and possibly a uterus or a pair of ovaries inside, but that is not seen by the world whereas the person can feel it inside and hence may find it hurtful to be called a “he”, as they fail to accept the outer facade. A transgender person may be gay, straight, bisexual, asexual, or even attracted to a traditionally unidentified gender and hence it cannot be said that a Trans is so because of his or her sexual orientation. They don’t feel the need to conform to the societal norms of sex identification which is largely based on social construct and not on the biological one- these are based on how society expects a male or a female or a third gender to behave and portray themselves rather than what they feel or are inside.

57% of transgender people have reported family rejection caused by fear of social stigma on account of families if the child or person came out of the closet with the secret. An increasing percentage now are able to get all the surgical help they need to live true to their gender identities, though a segment of them are still struggling to get themselves accepted in societal norms. If only the bias of the society we live in became more accepting, knowing that these people are not to blame and being transgender is not a choice they made at birth, though they can improve their life by accepting their gender identities.