Born Wrong!?
Don't worry, you're not alone
on transexuality
By: M.J. Rahahleh
It's a proven fact, "know thy self and you will find the key to unlock the door to the life that awaits you…" while some of us think they know themselves, some of us might be suddenly confronted with mixed feelings, awkward situations and unexplainable behavior, and the desire to be someone else: someone of the opposite gender. Those new – and usually undesired feelings can turn someone's life upside down, some might go with the "self acceptance" road, and actually act based on their new found nature as a transgender, other might reject it, and moreover, go down the path of self destruction and ultimately suicide.
Identifying your self as a transgender isn't an easy thing, its mostly recognized as a state of conflict between gender and physical sex, meaning, the gender in the body of a transgender person is in fact the opposite of his/her physical sex, or expressed by some transgender people as "being trapped in a body of the opposite sex". To make one thing clear here, sex is the physical form of a person while gender is a component of identity.
As we have mentioned before, being a transgender will lead to a conflict between gender and physical sex, and serious attempts of changing their physical appearance. For example, they commonly show some physical indications of their condition that may cause trouble for them from parents or peers. The male-to-female transsexual may be slow to develop male sex characteristics such as body hair, voice change. The Female-to-Male Transsexual may display evidence of masculinization of bone structure, hair, or voice. This conflict and agony caused by self rejection which makes the feeling of displacement even bigger and it can cause enormous suffering. This agony can and will lead to self destruction unless it's dealt with. (Some 50% of transsexuals die by the age of 30, usually by their own hands).
Trans sexuality occurs roughly equally in both physical males and physical females, and is caused by many factors; transsexuality is most commonly caused by stress-related hormonal changes in the womb. There is evidence that more transsexuals are born during times during or following war. Although Trans sexuality is not the same thing as homosexuality, two can’t be mixed up with each other. The desire to be of the opposite sex doesn't mean that a transsexual is attracted to the same sex, but some people might explain it based on the physical sex, and consider transsexuality as a form of homosexuality. Transsexuality differs greatly from "Cross-dressing"; transsexuality is concerned with gender identity and the change of the physical appearance to fit the recent desire of breaking free of this new found prison; the body of the opposite sex.
But those restrictions shouldn't be a burden to stop someone from achieving his/her ultimate goal in life, for example, Donna Rose.
Donna Rose is a male to female transsexual, born in Chicago as a male named David; she lived the first half of her life as a successful man. At the age of 40, in 1996, she no longer felt obliged to live a lie of shame, fear and guilt; she finally decided to confront her gender issues. In spite of the pain caused by this process of change, the loss of her marriage and to her 14 years old son, her family, friends and workplace peers. Donna has slowly come to the realization that her extraordinary experiences can help others on their own journey of self recognition. All revealed in her book "Wrapped in blue: A journey of discovery", Donna reveals her journey of self acceptance and the undefeatable power of the human spirit.
There is tremendous social bigotry -and often outright violence- expressed towards the transsexual crowd, and this often makes the life of the transsexual very difficult. Some transsexuals who have completely successful in transition to the appropriate sex therefore choose varying degrees of secrecy about their state and history. Other transsexuals never succeed in transforming physically to the point of being undetectable as transsexuals, and tend to suffer accordingly. They suffer many hurdles to achieve their required correction of the error of their birth, for they must face society, the medical establishment, the common loss of all family and friends, the cost of treatment, the extreme difficulty of the required 'half-way' phase of transition which may last up to two years, and the inner turmoil of self-doubt and conditioned self loathing of their condition. But eventually, it all comes down to the point of self acceptance, no one can judge you for who you really are, and no one can ever change your reality, because self acceptance is the first step to success by all means.