During lunch yesterday, when we were doing introductions, a few people at the table included their surgical status as part of their introduction. I declined to say anything about mine, in fact I nearly introduced myself saying that my surgical status is not important, but I held back. The subject was brought up by someone else at the lunch, saying that we should avoid identifying ourselves by our surgical status. She made some very valid points, such as the need to overcome the societal view that transition is all about the surgery, and the validity of all surgical statuses, pre, post, and non. What are your thoughts on this topic? I am doing my first poll here on this topic, and I would love to see a discussion on this as well. Let me know what you think.
Children as a Weapon
I have been thinking about children and transition again. I wrote about this before after I had read a blog post suggesting that not telling our children right away can be harmful to them. In the last week I have come across a few other things that have bothered me. For those who don’t much about me, I have two young daughters, ages 2 and 4. To say that the topic of transition and children is one that is close to my heart is an understatement. I absolutely adore my girls, and I would do anything to protect them from anything I think would harm them. I am not over protective, but I am protective of them. They are part of the reason I left law enforcement, I want to be there for them. The other reason I left was because I could not go on being Mr. Macho anymore. Two years later, I came out and stated transitioning.
Anyway, back on topic here before I veer off into a who other topic. There were really two issues sets of circumstances that I read about. One involved a friend who’s spouse insinuated that her being trans might be turning one of their children trans. The other situation involved some saying that they stopping transition, and putting it off until their children were grown. The reason being that their spouse and family said it would damage the children.
Both of these situations bring up some very strong feeling in me. In both of these situation, it feels to me that the children are being used against the transitioning spouse. Anyone of us who have children know how strong the parental protection instinct is. We want to protect our children, and we would never do anything to intentionally hurt our children. Our spouses and family know these feelings and emotions too. In some cases, they try and use these against us. After all, I doubt any of us would do anything to intentionally hurt our children. I know that I would not.
Why do family members do this? I think part of the reason is because of the strong emotional bond. The fear of losing our children. Many people hold off transition until late in life because of their children. I am in no way saying this is a bad choice. It is, however, not one that I can make. I have, in the short time since I came out and began transitioning, have witnessed my children flourish even more. They are happier, more self confident, more loving, and just seem better adjusted. They do not yet know that I am trans, but they do know that I am happier and that I am more involved with them. I am no longer distant and depressed, I am now more fully engaged in life.
Some family members see children as a means to stop someone from transitioning. They fear losing the person they have known their whole life, they rear the transition process, they fear transsexuality, in short, they do not understand. I have heard time and time again how well children handle transition, especially when the non-trans parent is supportive. The difficulties arise when that spouse if negative and actively and outwardly resists the transition. In these cases, the non-trans spouse often tries to put the children between the trans spouse and transition. They use the children as a weapon against transition. The fear of the unknown can bring out the worst in some people.
I don’t know if there is an answer to preventing such reactions. Education is certainly a start. There are several resources about children and transition, such as:
http://www.colage.org/programs/trans/ko … -guide.pdf
http://community.pflag.org/NETCOMMUNITY … &srcid=380
I think that any person who is contemplating transition, and who has children needs to be prepared. There are going to be enough fears about losing “you” and those may end up being projected onto your children. Be prepared to talk about the affect it will have on your children. My spouse asked me how I thought it would affect our children. I told her that I believed it would make them better more accepting people. That they would understand diversity more fully and learn to judge people not for how they appear, but for who they are. Not transitioning would have meant years of depression for me, and this would have not only taken its toll on me, but it would have had a negative affect on my children as well. Our children don’t care how we look, they love us for who we are. Why not let them see more of who we are.
