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!
Thank you for telling her story. This is going to be very interesting and compelling. Thanks for going into the terminology and just what is included in genetic make up. I didn't know the difference between transsexual and transgender. Great, informative post.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I am a different Katie than in the story ;)
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