Gender Identity Disorder? I don't think so! :D

[TaraJo]

*claps hands excitedly

Oh, this is good news for my friend, who recently came out of the transgender closet. One of her biggest concerns was the label of 'mental illness', since she would like to perhaps adopt one day. Good thing to know that the world is moving forward

That label is kinda a mixed blessing. While we might not like walking around with some kind of mental health label, we need to have some kind of medical label on us so we can apply health insurance to our issues.

Nice! It's different for everyone... have you suffered from the 'how trans is trans enough' bullshit some of the community touts because you don't mind/like it?

Even then, not really. The only people within the community who give me grief over it have been people who already had an axe to grind with me and just used my sex work as an extra club to bludgeon me with.

I've fought the 'urge' to cut it off for some six years now... I'd say I have a lot of restraint, but I know it's just because I'm looking forward to post-op orgasm *so much*

Oh, God, I want that so much, too! I just wish I didn't have to give up my penis to get a vag; having both would be awesome!

My earlier teen years were spent being fucked both utterly willingly and also not. I can imagine how "fun" it is to be bullied through school, or I can just remember it. I'd smile at "you look like a girl.", but then frown since it was often meant with a mean heart...

Well, in sports, the phrase 'like a girl' is used as an insult. Someone doesn't hit well, you tell them 'you hit like a girl.' They can't throw well, 'you throw like a girl.' They can't run fast, 'you run like a girl.' And so on. You can only imagine how it felt for a young person who wants to be a girl hearing how much being a girl is an insult, right? Those insults and general guy locker room culture got worse and worse as I progressed through school until my sophmore year when I had an emotional breakdown and wound up finishing high school within the juvenile mental health system.

That sucks I wasn't sure what to do when I moved to Texas with only two friends left in Alaska... so I went out almost every night to various GLBT meetings in hopes of making new friends. Most of the people I met I don't talk to or care about, but I've met a good number who meet the mark ^_^

Granted... it's probably harder to change your social circles when you're in your thirties than your late teens...

Probably, but I still have ways to make friends. I'm a college student and classes start Monday, so I can make friends there. I guess that's another down side to the work I do, though, in that I don't really make any work friends.

Although, in a way, I don't need to much outside interaction. I have Lee, we live together, so if I need someone to talk to or just general companionship, he's there for me.

He'd totally take that trade, although he'd much rather get rid of 'the tumors' than fix his genitals. Poor thing has to either deal with letting them bounce around, which is EXTREMELY uncomfortable to him or he has to wear a thick, hot, heavy binder under his clothes in Houston heat and humidity. I never met breasts I hated until he came around.

Transmen have it hard His nickname for them reminds me of my 'cancerous growth'

Yeah, well, here's a story to exemplify his feelings towards them.

A little over a year ago, shortly after he moved in with me, we got a cat, Annabelle. And every morning, Annabelle does what housecats do: sit by our face and paw around at us until one of us wakes up to go feed her. One morning, she did like she normally did with one big problem: while trying to wake Lee up, she stepped on his chest while he was sound asleep. There isn't anything that makes him more uncomfortable than having his chest touched and/or feeling them wiggle, so having a fairly heavy cat wake him up from a dead sleep by stepping on them is about the worst thing that could happen. All in one quick motion he sat up, yelled out like he was in pain and threw the cat across the room.

I guess the good news is that the cat doesn't sniff at us to wake us up anymore and Annabelle knows better than to touch his chest.