Adding Iron(Fe) to the Male - Part 1

This will be my first in a series of blogs highlighting one of my very dear friends who has the iron will and strength to be who she truly is. We will spend the next several weeks discovering who Katie is and her courageous journey in transitioning from Alexander to Katie.

I would like to first cover sexual makeup and the many misconceptions involving the matter.  Imagine you have a makeup pallet in front of you; within this pallet you have every choice you need to make you flawless and feel comfortable in your skin.  For some people, they see the pallet and know exactly what their perfect combination is. While others have to take their time to best find the colors that best define them. However, there are some cases where the person may pick the color scheme that they think others will like the most. Your sexual makeup works in a very similar fashion.

Our make up consists of four different aspects that all come together to make us who we are. First there is our biological sex, consisting of the chromosomes and body parts we are born with.  Then there is our gender. Our gender is who we believe ourselves to be whether it is male, female or a combination of the two.  It is a common misconception that gender and biological sex are one in the same.  This is not the case! The two are completely separate entities that add to your true combination of sexual makeup.  The other two parts of our sexual makeup are our sexual orientation (i.e. heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or asexual) and our social behaviors.  Our social behaviors consist of how we present our sexual makeup in the way that we talk, act, and dress.

When someone has a hard time figuring out their perfect combination that person could be going through something called 'gender dysphoria.' Gender dysphoria is a feeling that your biological sex does not match that of your gender. When someone acts upon their gender dysphoria and their social behaviors match that of the gender dysphoria it is then the individual could be classified as Transgender.  A transgender individual does NOT have to be a transsexual.  A transsexual is a transgender person who would like or has had the surgeries needed to alter their biological sex in order to match their gender.

Keep in mind a transgender person does not have a choice in how they feel.  No one can help how they feel about anything. Our feelings are the beauty of who we are. They are what help us to shine as individuals. People have two options in life - be who you truly are and let your beauty shine outward or be who you think others want you to be and be miserable in your own skin. 

Katie's journey is just beginning. My next blog will concentrate on Alexander and the slow realization of who he is truly meant to be.  So help me in supporting this strong woman to let her true colors shine and her happiness radiate!

Grasping for a lost art...

I'm a people watcher.  I find myself constantly watching others every where I go.  Let me be clear, I am in no way creating judgments or opinions about these people but more so wondering about them.  What has brought them to this location today? I watch how they interact with others and can usually pinpoint their basic demeanor by just watching their stances while waiting in line.  During my time people watching I have come to notice something that has become a lost art. Respect.  I have not only witnessed this lost art in public but also in social media.  We as a culture have lost the general art of being respectful to others and ourselves.
In fact, we are so surprised when we see others practicing Respect that we praise that individual for something that we should be doing everyday and rightfully so respect and even tolerance have become lost in our ever growing selfish society. We can praise the individual as much as we want but how about we take a chapter from their book and bring back this lost art. 
This lose of respect and tolerance for others was especially brought to my attention during our recent Government Shutdown.  During this time I witnessed the complete and utter lack of respect and tolerance for others opinions. Since when did we get to a point where we feel the need to disrespect the opinions of others? Part of the beauty of America is our freedom of speech which extends to all viewpoints. How about instead of degrading others viewpoints we recognize that as Americans we have to right to have and express these viewpoints.  We are a melting pot not one-way street.
This was just one example of how respect and tolerance have been lost in our society. Between the blatant lack of tolerance for different religions and lack of respect for others that we sometimes display on our social media pages; its amazing that Americans in general haven't been deemed as intolerant or even hateful in some regards.  I'm not saying that we are all like this. I still believe that it is human nature to be kind. However, we all have our moments and this is a trend that I have been witnessing with increasing occurrence in recent years.
So let's, as a society, bring back our P's and Q's when a stranger holds open the door for us or try to be on time to our appointments more often (I'm very guilty of this). Bring back listening skills and tone down our sometimes disrespectful natures in regards to other viewpoints and celebrate that we have the right to disagree with one another. After all without our freedom of speech and religion our society would be no different than most others.  Our freedoms are what separate us; they are what make us the best and in practicing Respect for others it has the power to create a much happier society. In a way Respect is Power.