Many people ask the question "When did you know you were ..." When did you know you were gay or transgender etc... You never hear straight people ask each other that question. That is privilege!
I did not know that I was transgender as a child I did know that I was "different" and that something was missing. I also grew up in a time that people rarely if at all spoke about gay or lesbian people. So even if I would have "know" I did not have the language or the knowledge. Looking back I can see that I struggled but did not know what it all meant.
I fell in love with my partner in college. I had never been in a same sex relationship before and it was a struggle to come to terms with. It went against what people in the Catholic Church said. However, it was our Catholic beliefs that brought us together. What we had was so beautiful and loving. Neither one of us embraced the identity of lesbian very well at first. It was not until I returned to graduate school that I fully embraced this identity.
The feeling of different stayed with me and I would explain it as a hole that I could not fill. Without it full I was never complete and I would need to continue to search. I did not know I was transgender until my mid 30's.
Most LGBTQQAA people know that they are different at a young age. We all eventually feel emotions towards others. For some it is in elementary school. Others in middle or high school. And others may not feel that until college or adulthood or old age. We are all different! We are not really that different from you!
So think to yourself. When did you know ...? Learn your story and share it with others!
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I had a really different experience with this than you. I realized I was attracted to girls at a really young age, and first came out to friends and my parents when I was 11. I first got the idea that I could be FTM when I was 16, but couldn't do anything about it until I was an adult, and made that decision at 19. My identity has small changes all the time, and I expect that to last indefinitely, but I had the major ones figured out very young.
ReplyDeleteI had an advantage though - I shrugged off religion very easily. It is a lot easier to come to terms with one's identity when there is no big scary god around to damn you.