I live in Ramat Gan and just like you, I curse daily at the store at how incredibly expensive everything has become. I spend way too much online; and way too little time working out or eating healthy.
There are, however, a few weird things about me: I don’t have a subscription to a streaming service (not even to Netflix); and while I was born here in Israel, I still don’t like hummus, falafel or spicy food.
Also, I’m transgender. This means that some people may view the mere existence of my life as proof of the evil and dangerous gender ideology out there, but the reality is quite different. The reality is that I’m just a person.
Sure, you may not understand me. You may not understand why I chose to take hormones daily or why I choose to have top surgery.
But that’s ok.
It’s my life – not yours, and you don’t need to understand it.
When I went to the plastic surgeon for my top surgery, almost all the people in the waiting room were women waiting for their botox/breast enlargement/reduction/facelift – whatever.
We were all in that waiting room with one goal in mind: to have the surgeon alter something in our body to make us feel better about our body, about ourselves and to make looking at ourselves in the mirror a little bit better.
Usually when a discussion about transgender people comes up someone automatically quips up that being trans is tough so no one would choose to do it if it was a choice.
I’m not fond of this argument. I think this argument misses the point a bit.
My right to exist shouldn’t come from my existence being a tough one; instead, it should simply stem from the fact that I’m a human being.
Sure, I could talk about suicide rates among transgender people and about the levels of unemployment, family abandonment, stress and anxiety that is rampant throughout the transgender community. But honestly? I don’t want to.
My right to use a public bathroom shouldn’t be tied to whether my life is a miserable one or not.
People’s personal traumas are exactly that: personal.
And asking people to prove their traumas and repeatedly share their miserable experience just so people are convinced to give us rights erases the fact that above all we are human beings.
People shouldn’t be asked to convince other people they are not mentally deranged to be able to use public bathrooms.
Public bathrooms are, as their name suggests, a public good, therefore every part of our public should be allowed to use them. And I, as all transgender human beings, are part of that public.
Also, are we going to start debating whether bipolar, schizophrenic, people with down syndrome, etc., should be allowed to use the bathroom? Of course not and we shouldn’t.
So, you may think of me as part of some woke agenda to overtake your life. Or you may think that my gender ideology is part of some liberal scheme to destroy Western society. Or even that I’m a bearer of a PC police culture that is turning people into out–of-touch, sensitive snowflakes. But while you do so, please keep this in mind about us transgender people: we are breathing, living, human beings just like you.
The writer is a transgender digital writer and content strategist. He has worked in digital marketing for over seven years and his focus is on creating great content that converts. Guy is a digital nomad, who is also a history buff. He has a website about trailblazing women and LGBTQ folks at https://letherfly.org/en.