I Cannot, Not Be Transgender

I am transgender and I am under assault.

https://www.pexels.com/@cottonbro/

I can not, not be transgender.

I know.

I have tried…dozens of times.

I have wished almost every day that I wasn’t transgender.

I wish I was cisgender.

I wish every day that I wasn’t vilified in the press, made a gender outlaw by the federal government and increasingly under state governments, damned to hell by religious zealots, and made to feel the potential shame from certain family and friends if I were to come out.

I will not get any of my wishes.

I am transgender and I am under assault.

All transgender people are under assault and we haven’t done anything other than simply exist. Too many people wish we didn’t exist, too many people think we shouldn’t exist, and too many people don’t care if we exist.

But we do exist.

We are a constant part of each generation like redheads and left-handed people. We are part of human existence and, I like to think, bring addded color and depth to the world by simply existing. Tragically, many people like their world simple, in black and white.