Life into Zoe: Gender Warrior

As the old year comes to an end, I contemplate the years to come and what kind of difference I can make it in. I am inspired by a blog I just read to write this today. It’s a blog dedicated to a young gender warrior of only 11 years old and her mother who is also a gender warrior as a parent. I invite you to read there blog and see the inspiration I have seen: http://cameronsong.blogspot.com/.

This leads me to my topic, I am declaring myself a Gender Warrior and I will stand up for my transgender sisters and brothers and those who are their loved ones and families. Education of those who do not know what being transgender is about. I will be a source of education and support for those in need and for those who are in the dark.

Transgender and gender variant is a proven birth defect of fetal development that occurs during the time when the brain and body is determining gender and that the fetus is not supplied the right amount of hormones at the right time causing either the brain or body to develop improperly in the area of gender and gender identity. There are research studies that 36% of transgender individuals will attempt suicide and the mortality rate of that just increases as one gets older if the condition is left untreated; this is a higher mortality rate than some forms of cancer. As stated in this little girls blog, gender is not what’s between your legs or what’s on the outside but the area between your ears.

Due to social norms we are forced to be in the roles that our bodies dictate and so we suffer on the inside and eventually it either kills us or we internalize it and might as well be dead to the world. I was dead to the world and had no self worth, it took me over 20 years to figure myself out and that was a crime. If there was more education out there at the time I started to question my gender I would have not suffered half my life and caused so much pain for others. I will be there for the next generation of individuals and help them by being the light in the darkness. Helping the main stream understand that this is a serious medical issue and can be related to the same areas of health as other well know brain birth defects like; ADHD, Dyslexia, Bi-Polar and even Autism. And like those conditions you cannot cure them you just treat them and learn to cope with the issue the best way possible and lead a normal life and for a transgender individual this usually means transitioning to the gender that there brain is wired for, but only if they seek treatment.

Social taboo’s have placed upon transgender as a life style choice and I’ll tell you this I would never wish upon anyone to be born transgender and I do transition by choice but not as a lifestyle choice but as a choice to be the woman I was always inside. So never was it a lifestyle choice, the lifestyle choice was the 20 years of not facing my own identity. There is hope now as social norms are changing and that taboo’s are being set aside for more understanding. I ask that all that read this become a gender warrior and educate your neighbors, friends and families about what is means to be transgender.

Once that change begins then bigger transformations can be done. Right now medical and mental health treatment for transgender is very much considered a fringe medicine and not much support is coming from the medical community, the most research done for transgenderism is done in other countries that now accept it as a true medical condition. There is very little coverage for medical insurance and that most transitional cost are out of pocket even if the procedures are considered necessary by medical standards. Cosmetic surgeries like facial reconstructive surgery, breast augmentation and even Gender Reassignment Surgery are deemed medically necessary but are not covered by most health plans. Same goes for day to day treatments like trips to the therapist and medical hair removal or even prescriptions. I would ask that as a newly dubbed Gender Warrior that you spread the word and be a advocate for the transgender community,

I know I will as I life my life a Life into Zoe.