Translator: Margarida Ferreira Revisora: Mafalda Ferreira
At what age did we begin to differentiate
the masculine of the feminine, in the language?
At what age did we begin to identify ourselves as a boy or as a girl?
One day a doctor asked my son,
“Since when do you feel like a boy?”
And he replied, “As long as I have conscience.”
He was 11 years old.
Identity is the inner feeling of being.
We can have a strong sporting identity,
linguistic, territorial,
which, if they question us, makes us enter into conflict.
Sexual identity is the intimate feeling of being a man or a woman.
It is to say, “Who am I?”
To this question, only the person himself can answer.
If you ask me if I feel like a man, a woman, or both,
I feel it like an assault.
The expression “sex”
is the way I socially express my identity.
That is, how I express that I am a woman,
a Tutsi woman,
the “top model” of the moment,
the German chancellor,
or myself.
We self-define ourselves as women.
But we have expressed it in very different ways.
Sexual orientation,
is related to who I like,
who awakens our passions.
This term sometimes leads to confusion.
It associates to words like heterosexual,
homosexual,
pansexual
asexual, bisexual or other.
These three conditions,
identity, orientation and expression,
are independent of each other,
That is, none of them conditions the other two.
At birth, our sex is classified by the genitals,
We make a prediction of who we are going to be.
In most cases, you get it right.
But sometimes not.
This leads to conflict.
Because, along with this identity that is assigned to us,
are associated
– and we feel them as exclusive –
are associated with social expectations, which we will be unable to meet.
The boys and girls will begin to feel confusion from an early age.
And, as they can, in their language they call themselves, to show us:
“I’m a boy.”
“No, you’re a girl, you’re a girl.”
“I am a girl,” or “I would like to be a girl.”
“No, you will never be a girl. You are not a girl, you have a pilinha.”
A certain anguish, because your father or your mother,
the people who supposedly love and respect you unconditionally,
they deny you identity.
(Applause)
From children who mark the way.
Since we were born.
Pink, blue.
If it is not at home, it is in the toy store,
in the varsity,
in cartoon.
The girls are princesses.
Boys are superheroes.
The International Olympic Committee has a whole history
objective parameters that classify men and women.
But you still have not got it.
A cis-sexual man,
– that is to say, a man whom they hit on their identity, at birth –
to whom the genitals are amputated
because of an illness or an accident,
will remain the same person.
You will continue to have the same sexual identity.
There are cis-sexual men who have developed breasts.
That’s not why they stop feeling men.
Having these or those genitals,
have XX, XY and XXY chromosomes,
or have chest or not have, does not determine the identity.
Transsexual people
are those who, at birth, did not correct their identity.
They are a minority, but they exist.
Have these or those genitals
should not have more importance than to be redheaded, to be albino
or have an eye of each color.
It is so absurd to force a left-handed person to write with his right hand,
How to force a transsexual
to play a role to be accepted socially.
Have you ever imagined having to face the world every day,
behind a ridiculous disguise?
Transsexual boys and girls do not appear in stories,
neither in the cinema nor in the manuals.
We do not know them or even expect them to exist.
They will have to fight, every day, with this reality,
that we listen to them and believe in them.
Sometimes,
I meet with families who, faced with this situation,
the first thing they put on is how this will affect their social environment.
As I explain to the family,
What will your colleagues and co-workers think?
What repercussions will there be?
People whose emotional attachment is less,
as medical or teaching professionals,
are paralyzed.
They fear losing their social status, or that it affects them.
How am I going to tell my colleagues?
How am I going to explain this to the faculty?
But they forget
that this person has an experience,
where their fundamental rights have not been respected.
The right to free development of personality.
The right to intimacy.
The right to dignity.
Decency or obligation.
a person should be the focus of concern.
Transsexual boys and girls are an example of bravery and tenacity.
Despite these barriers,
they make themselves heard,
and claim their right to live their life with pride.
Transsexual people are a gift to the rest.
They allow us to question these beliefs
in unreachable stereotypes that are so damaging to us.
I feel like I’m very lucky to have a transsexual child.
It allowed to transform a world that was white and black
in a world full of colors.
Thanks.
(Applause)
At what age did we begin to differentiate
the masculine of the feminine, in the language?
At what age did we begin to identify ourselves as a boy or as a girl?
One day a doctor asked my son,
“Since when do you feel like a boy?”
And he replied, “As long as I have conscience.”
He was 11 years old.
Identity is the inner feeling of being.
We can have a strong sporting identity,
linguistic, territorial,
which, if they question us, makes us enter into conflict.
Sexual identity is the intimate feeling of being a man or a woman.
It is to say, “Who am I?”
To this question, only the person himself can answer.
If you ask me if I feel like a man, a woman, or both,
I feel it like an assault.
The expression “sex”
is the way I socially express my identity.
That is, how I express that I am a woman,
a Tutsi woman,
the “top model” of the moment,
the German chancellor,
or myself.
We self-define ourselves as women.
But we have expressed it in very different ways.
Sexual orientation,
is related to who I like,
who awakens our passions.
This term sometimes leads to confusion.
It associates to words like heterosexual,
homosexual,
pansexual
asexual, bisexual or other.
These three conditions,
identity, orientation and expression,
are independent of each other,
That is, none of them conditions the other two.
At birth, our sex is classified by the genitals,
We make a prediction of who we are going to be.
In most cases, you get it right.
But sometimes not.
This leads to conflict.
Because, along with this identity that is assigned to us,
are associated
– and we feel them as exclusive –
are associated with social expectations, which we will be unable to meet.
The boys and girls will begin to feel confusion from an early age.
And, as they can, in their language they call themselves, to show us:
“I’m a boy.”
“No, you’re a girl, you’re a girl.”
“I am a girl,” or “I would like to be a girl.”
“No, you will never be a girl. You are not a girl, you have a pilinha.”
A certain anguish, because your father or your mother,
the people who supposedly love and respect you unconditionally,
they deny you identity.
(Applause)
From children who mark the way.
Since we were born.
Pink, blue.
If it is not at home, it is in the toy store,
in the varsity,
in cartoon.
The girls are princesses.
Boys are superheroes.
The International Olympic Committee has a whole history
objective parameters that classify men and women.
But you still have not got it.
A cis-sexual man,
– that is to say, a man whom they hit on their identity, at birth –
to whom the genitals are amputated
because of an illness or an accident,
will remain the same person.
You will continue to have the same sexual identity.
There are cis-sexual men who have developed breasts.
That’s not why they stop feeling men.
Having these or those genitals,
have XX, XY and XXY chromosomes,
or have chest or not have, does not determine the identity.
Transsexual people
are those who, at birth, did not correct their identity.
They are a minority, but they exist.
Have these or those genitals
should not have more importance than to be redheaded, to be albino
or have an eye of each color.
It is so absurd to force a left-handed person to write with his right hand,
How to force a transsexual
to play a role to be accepted socially.
Have you ever imagined having to face the world every day,
behind a ridiculous disguise?
Transsexual boys and girls do not appear in stories,
neither in the cinema nor in the manuals.
We do not know them or even expect them to exist.
They will have to fight, every day, with this reality,
that we listen to them and believe in them.
Sometimes,
I meet with families who, faced with this situation,
the first thing they put on is how this will affect their social environment.
As I explain to the family,
What will your colleagues and co-workers think?
What repercussions will there be?
People whose emotional attachment is less,
as medical or teaching professionals,
are paralyzed.
They fear losing their social status, or that it affects them.
How am I going to tell my colleagues?
How am I going to explain this to the faculty?
But they forget
that this person has an experience,
where their fundamental rights have not been respected.
The right to free development of personality.
The right to intimacy.
The right to dignity.
Decency or obligation.
a person should be the focus of concern.
Transsexual boys and girls are an example of bravery and tenacity.
Despite these barriers,
they make themselves heard,
and claim their right to live their life with pride.
Transsexual people are a gift to the rest.
They allow us to question these beliefs
in unreachable stereotypes that are so damaging to us.
I feel like I’m very lucky to have a transsexual child.
It allowed to transform a world that was white and black
in a world full of colors.
Thanks.
(Applause)
Please follow and like us: