Transgender Story

Imagine Being Me!

Imagining what it is like to be me for just a few minutes.

Mmkay so let's take a break from the bounds of being a trans-woman and let's imagine some of the situations from a different perspective. Let's imagine things as if you were experiencing something for another reason, perhaps you are considered ugly, or just not liked by someone, and take that moment to see what it would be like to be in my shoes if the scenario was a little different.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Entering a Store

Imagine yourself on a daily trip to the store, like any other day, everything seems to be in perfect order, but when you finally arrive there something doesn’t sit right. Immediately getting out of your car, you catch someone looking at you, but they look at you and turn away the moment they catch you staring back. “Wow, I wonder what's going on” the thought would likely run through your mind.

Moving from your car, you approach the Store entrance, the day seems okay so far but the person in front of you enters before you, to your surprise, he actually pulls the door shut on you as if purposefully doing so. You attempt to blow it off like that guy was just having a bad day and open the door. Immediately standing in front of you is a woman and her 5-year-old daughter and she pulls her child back from you as if you had the plague, scowling at you as you pass by even though you say “Sorry, Excuse me”.

You begin to think wow is everyone having a bad day today, but think nothing more of it and go about your way. You start shopping buying odds and ends of different things that you need but you are unable to find something, in particular, you know this store carries them, you found it online after all and said it was in stock. So considering your options you decide it best to just ask someone.

The first person you happen to ask, sadly replies to you, “oh I don’t work in that area, you have to find someone else in that area”. Mmkay, so you go and look around for someone in that area as you normally would, right? Eventually, you find a person who is stocking the shelves in the area that you need and ask them if they could help you find a piece that you are searching for — Whatever item it may be! — and the person looks at you and basically ignores you. You get a little irritated by this but ask again until they respond, however, you are met with a rude response, “We don’t carry that item you will have to go to another story”. Clearly you know they carry it but after some banter back and forth you still accomplish nothing. Eventually finding the item on the same aisle that the guy was on, without his help. Knowing this you just feel like you were brushed off, perhaps even ignored for whatever the reason might be.

Anyways, you finally collect everything that you needed and head to the register, but it gets worse. The moment you are next in line, the lady looks at you and shakes her head, turning her register light off and saying that her lane was closed, a lot of similar situations happening all of sudden. You end up going to the next line, you are just about ready to fully check out and the lane that was just closed when you were next turns her light back on but you already check out of the other lane. Talk about bad luck right?

After all the headaches that people were giving you, you began to realize that you were getting back looks the whole entire time in the store but you did nothing wrong, you were sweet, kind, and friendly and it didn’t matter. You were still ignored, scowled at, and discriminated against for being you, nothing more.

A Trans-Gender feeling

This example is what it is like for a trans-gender woman or man to get when they are first coming out, even if they are the sweetest person in the world. The disrespect, the shaming, and the pain that people give a trans person are cruel and for what, nothing for just being you.

Each time a person has to realize who they are, they are discriminated against for something that people don’t understand, and there is no reason behind it, it just happens because of hate, failure to understand, and disrespect. This simplistic situation is what we as a trans community have to endure when first coming out. Is this really what we are wanting to enforce, a lack of understanding and acceptance of people because they are different? I truly hope not, but maybe if you are not trans and you read this you may feel different when you cast your hate.