UNIQUELY DIFFERENT

In my generation, gender expectations were the roadblock that prevented most women from competing in sports or finding employment beyond entry-level positions. Gender expectations nearly ended the career of a brilliant songwriter and pianist named Elton John because men weren’t “supposed to” have intimate relations with other men. And so when I first became aware of my effeminate nature and my dream of being a girl somewhere between the ages of five and seven, it was instantly clear even for a small child that these things could never be.
Like most of the transgender people born in the 1960s and 1970s, I didn’t know there were others like me who felt out of place in their assigned gender roles. Nobody told me there were medical options available to trans-gender people.












I dream of a world where I don’t have to constantly worry that I’ll be rejected or endangered simply for expressing my natural femininity or for identifying as a woman. We are living at a pivotal point in transgender culture. I believe that 50 years down the road, everyone will wonder what caused all the controversy.
As for myself, I’m just a girl who is looking for- ward to spending my later days in a purple dress with a red hat and finally having enough time to tend my garden.
