| Re: Question for older transsitioners.. [message #115233 is a reply to message #16139 ] |
Thu, 30 September 2010 08:51   |
 Teresa 
Messages: 9331
Registered: September 2007
Location: Salem, Oregon |
Senior Member
Beginning Life Founder
BL3D |
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| Gina wrote on Wed, 30 January 2008 05:59 | You avoided to transition when you were younger, for different reasons. What were you thinking? Was there some sort of consolation that helped you to go trough during those days, what was it? Since you could make today, I mean you are alive, I wonder If there was an specific thing you guys found peace on.. If this was so how did that shaped the person you are today?
my regards
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One of the confusing issues I have to this day, is understanding fully, how some of the older transitioners can say that there wasn't any information around (at least, in the US) back when they were in their late teens or early twenties.
I'm not trying to be argumentative - truly.
Here is why I'm confused. I remember I was watching the national news in a small town in Oklahoma one day in 1970 - and there was a news article about a transsexual. I remember the family talked a little about it as they were confused by the woman choosing to stay with her wife - which is why I probably remember the news article.
I remember reading an article in a women magazine that my mum subscribed to also in 1970. I was 13yo at the time. Seeing the word 'Transsexual' in print gave me an idea - a scary idea. I decided to look up the word 'Transsexual' in both my school and the public library in my town to see if I could find more info. I did - I found Harry Benjamin's book. Expanding my search, I asked my folks to take me to the local college so I could use that library (under the guise of doing a science paper) where I found a lot of information that was clinical in nature.
By the time I was 15yo, I had done enough research on my own on the endocrine system to have discovered that a study had been done on teenage males in the application of female hormones as a way of reducing acne (I had bad acne then - which I still bare the scars of today). As I was seeing a dermatologist for my acne, I approached him with the idea of using the info in the study to help reduce my acne (It was worth a try). When that failed, I told him that I was a transsexual and that I really wanted the hormones to stop masculinizing any more than I already had. He refused, said I needed my parents permission or wait until I was 18 and an adult. At that moment, I resolved to pursue this further when I was 18.
Some people will say that someone who is 13 or 15yo is too young to know themselves, or be able to do the research that's necessary, or even understand themselves at that age. I find this statement equally confusing, for I certainly knew where and how to find the info through some very simple and obvious guesswork.
When I was 18, a newspaper article on the front page of one of the sections of the LA Times newspaper (obviously a newspaper with a large audience in 1975) talked about transsexuals meeting in a support group. The article gave specifics. A two hour bus ride from my little town to the meeting place allowed me to actually meet some transsexuals. What I discovered then was a LOT of transsexuals who were my age. Also a lot of transsexuals who were the age of the older transitioners who regularly participate on this web site (40 to 50 something). From them, I found the name of a psychiatrist who would give me a letter for hormones and in the 9th month of my 18th year, I was finally able to begin my transition. All of these folks I saw and met at these 3D support group meetings had found a way to transition before the internet - just as I had - though good old research in the libraries.
So, now you can see my confusion. I know for a fact that the info was out there when I was a child. I found a plethora of information in my middle school library, my high school library, my local public library and several different college libraries. I routinely saw articles in newspapers, magazines and on the television on transsexualism. So, with the info out there...I don't see how some folks can say that the info wasn't out there.
Teresa
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