it starts when you’re born literally
screaming infant girls receive dresses
and come home to a nursery painted pink
boys wear shirts with miniature
footballs on them and are welcomed into
the world by the color blue I would love
to live in a society that does not have
any of concept of gender but we don’t
we’re assigned to gender role the
instant were born and even though our
society is largely starting to change
how we view gender the traditional ideas
of boy and girl largely still exist
growing up I cannot have had two more
different sisters while my younger one
loves styling her hair and pre-planning
for her outfits for the month my older
one wasn’t interested in any of that
seeing her in a dress as as rare as a
Bigfoot sighting and from her Evans
discomfort you could tell she’d been
forced to wear it from the way my family
treated my sister subtly asking if she
wanted to buy more girly clothes I put
in a bit on a bit of mascara I was
conditioned to believe that the way my
sister was living her life as a girl was
wrong I like to my younger sister I like
to my Barbies I like that the girls on
Disney Channel and what I found was that
girls need to look pretty they need to
have long flowing hair lipstick nail
polish skirts when I saw my older sister
looking more like a boy than these girls
did I was ashamed I told myself she
can’t look like a boy she’s not a boy by
the time I was 10 or 11 I started going
into my shy and introverted personality
and the insecurities that came along
with this convinced me I didn’t have
enough friends I figured that being
popular and looking like the popular
girls was the key to my unhappiness to
fix this I like to my younger sister
when she started shopping at the mall I
started shopping there when she tried on
makeup for the first time I followed
suit
she was my femininity role model for
years I wore the same clothes as
everyone else and grew my hair out
telling myself that I was happy that I
was blending in but on the inside
hated how I looked I felt the incessant
urge to rip my long hair out and buy all
new clothes to fit my more masculine
self-image so I could finally look in
the mirror and be happy with what I saw
I try to suppress these feelings and it
worked for a while but gradually it all
started to feel wrong the summer before
my freshman year of high school my older
sister came home from college and I had
no idea that she was utterly and
completely going to change my world I
still remember when and where I was when
she introduced me to a TV show called
RuPaul’s Drag Race which has
incidentally in the last four years I’ve
been watching it grown to almost
mainstream popularity which is
revolutionary for a show of its kind
when my older sister told me that she
wanted to introduce me to a TV show
about drag queens which are
traditionally men dressing as women on
stage I was extremely apprehensive but
the more I watched it the more I was
captivated by their creativity and
artistry and I was completely hooked
this TV show introduced me to the idea
that gender is way more complicated than
simply male and female
it didn’t happen suddenly but I started
to notice that in the world around me
there were so many people that do not
identify with their gender at birth not
only did I started calling the drag
queens I found I saw on the show I also
found celebrities like Ruby Rose and
Jeffrey star that identified neither as
completely male or completely female as
well as transgender ones such as Laverne
Cox and it was around this time that I
had this aha moment that this struggle
with gender wasn’t just happening on the
celebrity platform it was happening
within me it dawned on me that my entire
life I have been so busy pursuing the
concept of the ideal woman that in the
meantime I’d forgotten to listen to
myself and when I started focusing my
intention internally I found out that
while I live doing my makeup and
being called she I am much more myself
with more masculine clothes and with
shaved hair rather than a braid going
down my back
when I finally started to listening to
myself and looking the way I wanted to I
felt so much happier and so much more
natural like I was always meant to look
that way
I wish more than anything I could tell
my younger self that there are so many
people in this world that do not comply
with the simple male and female
identities and not not want him to look
like the traditional male or female it’s
okay
it would have saved me so much confusion
and pain and I could have been there for
my older sister who like many many
gender non-conforming people face all
sorts of bullying for choosing to be who
she really was when I was younger I’d
assumed that the problem was in my
sister and me that we were the weird
ones but in reality the problem is
rooted much deeper and how rigidly our
society views gender so what can you do
to help fix this problem thankfully as
our society is becoming much more open
to the different ways that gender can be
expressed is important to educate
yourself a person that identifies with
their gender at birth is considered
cisgender and a person that identifies
with the opposite gender at birth is
considered transgender between sis and
transgender there are many different
gender identities such as gender queer
gender fluid and an androgynous which
consider themselves in the realm between
male and female there are three
different pronouns that a person can
traditionally go by well he and she are
the traditional male and female terms of
her skin can also choose to go by they
if they prefer a more gender-neutral
term and contrary to popular belief
gender identity and sexual identity have
absolutely nothing to do with each other
simply put sexual sexual identity is who
you are attracted to and gender identity
is who you are
keep in mind you do not have to be an
expert in all the ins and outs of gender
and all the different gender identities
that
when it comes to gender the vital
element is respect if a person asks you
to call them by a certain name or
pronoun please do so without question
and if you meet someone that you’re not
sure of their gender it never hurts to
respectfully ask and I mean respectfully
never should you ever say are you a boy
or a girl believe it or not that is
considered extremely offensive
instead you can ask what gender pronouns
we prefer to be called by to give you an
idea what transgender and gender
non-conforming people face every day in
our society according to the National
transgender center for equality 41% of
them cannot get their two preferred
gender changed on their IDs 57% were
rejected by their families 19% have
either experience homelessness or
refused medical care and the most
shocking one 47 percent of them have
attempted suicide which is 27 times
higher than the average population in a
society where trans and gender
non-conforming people are treated like
they’re less than human from insulting
everyday interactions to the legislation
passed and our highest levels of
government treating these people with
with respect will remind them that there
are so many people in the world that
have acceptance and love for them open
in their hearts by sharing my personal
story with all of you I hope I can help
you sympathize which transgender and
gender non-conforming people or maybe
even embrace those qualities in yourself
and to treat them like any other person
that you meet and with respect opening
yourself up to all the different ways
that gender can be expressed will make
you a much more loving and open person
and I firmly believe a society that
accepts people of all genders is on the
right side of history but above all
don’t let gender define you or anyone
else
because at the end of the day we’re not
just a gender we’re people thank you you
screaming infant girls receive dresses
and come home to a nursery painted pink
boys wear shirts with miniature
footballs on them and are welcomed into
the world by the color blue I would love
to live in a society that does not have
any of concept of gender but we don’t
we’re assigned to gender role the
instant were born and even though our
society is largely starting to change
how we view gender the traditional ideas
of boy and girl largely still exist
growing up I cannot have had two more
different sisters while my younger one
loves styling her hair and pre-planning
for her outfits for the month my older
one wasn’t interested in any of that
seeing her in a dress as as rare as a
Bigfoot sighting and from her Evans
discomfort you could tell she’d been
forced to wear it from the way my family
treated my sister subtly asking if she
wanted to buy more girly clothes I put
in a bit on a bit of mascara I was
conditioned to believe that the way my
sister was living her life as a girl was
wrong I like to my younger sister I like
to my Barbies I like that the girls on
Disney Channel and what I found was that
girls need to look pretty they need to
have long flowing hair lipstick nail
polish skirts when I saw my older sister
looking more like a boy than these girls
did I was ashamed I told myself she
can’t look like a boy she’s not a boy by
the time I was 10 or 11 I started going
into my shy and introverted personality
and the insecurities that came along
with this convinced me I didn’t have
enough friends I figured that being
popular and looking like the popular
girls was the key to my unhappiness to
fix this I like to my younger sister
when she started shopping at the mall I
started shopping there when she tried on
makeup for the first time I followed
suit
she was my femininity role model for
years I wore the same clothes as
everyone else and grew my hair out
telling myself that I was happy that I
was blending in but on the inside
hated how I looked I felt the incessant
urge to rip my long hair out and buy all
new clothes to fit my more masculine
self-image so I could finally look in
the mirror and be happy with what I saw
I try to suppress these feelings and it
worked for a while but gradually it all
started to feel wrong the summer before
my freshman year of high school my older
sister came home from college and I had
no idea that she was utterly and
completely going to change my world I
still remember when and where I was when
she introduced me to a TV show called
RuPaul’s Drag Race which has
incidentally in the last four years I’ve
been watching it grown to almost
mainstream popularity which is
revolutionary for a show of its kind
when my older sister told me that she
wanted to introduce me to a TV show
about drag queens which are
traditionally men dressing as women on
stage I was extremely apprehensive but
the more I watched it the more I was
captivated by their creativity and
artistry and I was completely hooked
this TV show introduced me to the idea
that gender is way more complicated than
simply male and female
it didn’t happen suddenly but I started
to notice that in the world around me
there were so many people that do not
identify with their gender at birth not
only did I started calling the drag
queens I found I saw on the show I also
found celebrities like Ruby Rose and
Jeffrey star that identified neither as
completely male or completely female as
well as transgender ones such as Laverne
Cox and it was around this time that I
had this aha moment that this struggle
with gender wasn’t just happening on the
celebrity platform it was happening
within me it dawned on me that my entire
life I have been so busy pursuing the
concept of the ideal woman that in the
meantime I’d forgotten to listen to
myself and when I started focusing my
intention internally I found out that
while I live doing my makeup and
being called she I am much more myself
with more masculine clothes and with
shaved hair rather than a braid going
down my back
when I finally started to listening to
myself and looking the way I wanted to I
felt so much happier and so much more
natural like I was always meant to look
that way
I wish more than anything I could tell
my younger self that there are so many
people in this world that do not comply
with the simple male and female
identities and not not want him to look
like the traditional male or female it’s
okay
it would have saved me so much confusion
and pain and I could have been there for
my older sister who like many many
gender non-conforming people face all
sorts of bullying for choosing to be who
she really was when I was younger I’d
assumed that the problem was in my
sister and me that we were the weird
ones but in reality the problem is
rooted much deeper and how rigidly our
society views gender so what can you do
to help fix this problem thankfully as
our society is becoming much more open
to the different ways that gender can be
expressed is important to educate
yourself a person that identifies with
their gender at birth is considered
cisgender and a person that identifies
with the opposite gender at birth is
considered transgender between sis and
transgender there are many different
gender identities such as gender queer
gender fluid and an androgynous which
consider themselves in the realm between
male and female there are three
different pronouns that a person can
traditionally go by well he and she are
the traditional male and female terms of
her skin can also choose to go by they
if they prefer a more gender-neutral
term and contrary to popular belief
gender identity and sexual identity have
absolutely nothing to do with each other
simply put sexual sexual identity is who
you are attracted to and gender identity
is who you are
keep in mind you do not have to be an
expert in all the ins and outs of gender
and all the different gender identities
that
when it comes to gender the vital
element is respect if a person asks you
to call them by a certain name or
pronoun please do so without question
and if you meet someone that you’re not
sure of their gender it never hurts to
respectfully ask and I mean respectfully
never should you ever say are you a boy
or a girl believe it or not that is
considered extremely offensive
instead you can ask what gender pronouns
we prefer to be called by to give you an
idea what transgender and gender
non-conforming people face every day in
our society according to the National
transgender center for equality 41% of
them cannot get their two preferred
gender changed on their IDs 57% were
rejected by their families 19% have
either experience homelessness or
refused medical care and the most
shocking one 47 percent of them have
attempted suicide which is 27 times
higher than the average population in a
society where trans and gender
non-conforming people are treated like
they’re less than human from insulting
everyday interactions to the legislation
passed and our highest levels of
government treating these people with
with respect will remind them that there
are so many people in the world that
have acceptance and love for them open
in their hearts by sharing my personal
story with all of you I hope I can help
you sympathize which transgender and
gender non-conforming people or maybe
even embrace those qualities in yourself
and to treat them like any other person
that you meet and with respect opening
yourself up to all the different ways
that gender can be expressed will make
you a much more loving and open person
and I firmly believe a society that
accepts people of all genders is on the
right side of history but above all
don’t let gender define you or anyone
else
because at the end of the day we’re not
just a gender we’re people thank you you
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