Hello, my name is Charlie. I’d like to thank you all for being here tonight and supporting our community. You may be here because you yourself are transgender. You many know someone that is. Or maybe you simply have questions related to the topic.
No matter what your reasoning is for being here, I hope that in sharing a small part of my journey, I will help to educate, empower or inspire you in some way.
Over the past decade, more transgender individuals have come out. Although acceptance has increased, there is still a large lack of support, resources and general understanding of what being transgender means and what many go through.
There is also the side of pure ignorance and hate, which has led to lack of confidence, fear, violence and brutal murders…creating remembrance days such as this.
Tonight isn’t about hate. Tonight is about remembering and honoring those that simply longed to be themselves from the inside out. People just like you and me. Is it really asking that much to be loved and accepted for the way that you are?
In this short video, I will share a mere few of the emotions, thoughts and struggles that many trans individuals face. Please watch with an open mind and an open heart, and I hope you enjoy.
Part 2
I hope that the video impacted you in a positive way.
Unfortunately, not many transitions are as smooth as mine has been. I have had support along the way and from so many amazing individuals. I am one of the few lucky ones out there and I am so thankful for it.
For as far back as I can remember, I knew I was a boy. I was attracted to women. Dressed in mens clothing. Wanted short hair. Preferred to be shirtless. Played sports with other boys. My other female friends didn’t feel this way.
I found out later in life that my body naturally produced a very high level of testosterone, which is not uncommon for many trans female to male individuals. Learning this helped to explain a lot of changes I had experienced.
Here’s where things get really interesting. I started seeing an amazing counselor, who explained that I am NOT a bad, dirty or perverse individual in any way shape or form. He explained that there are structural differences in the female vs. male brain.
Studies had found that transgender individuals had more similarities in structure to their experienced gender vs. their natal gender.
Furthermore, in the first 8-12 weeks of pregnancy, the maximum amount of hormones are produced by the mother to the fetal brain, thus developing it to the correct gender.
If the mother fails to recognize and produce these high levels of the required hormone (estrogen for female makeup or testosterone for male makeup), then the brain will reject the hormone present and shape into an opposite gender brain pattern accepting only an inadequate amount of the hormone in the adrenal and hypothalamus glands.
In these cases, we see later that the child develops dysphoria, other wise known as a sense of something not being right…normally leading to anxiety and depression. Gender dysphoria is the condition in which a person feels there is a difference between their biological sex and their gender identity.
Biological sex is determined only by the sex organs present (testes for male and ovaries for female). Gender identity is your personal sense of the gender you belong to. For most people, the biological sex and gender identity are the same…for those that do not feel this way, are experiencing some form of gender dysphoria.
This explanation was a game changer for me, that is why I am sharing it with you because I had never been given an explanation like that before. It made me look back throughout my life and understand the way I had been feeling for years and many of the changes my body naturally developed.
No matter what sexual orientation, gender, race, color you are… no matter what beliefs, religion or morals you hold… you are a person. An individual with a purpose. You hold the power to love or hate… accept or deny… stand up or hide…
I encourage you to help educate others…to love others for who they truly are…to accept others that are different from you… To stand up for one another….And to remember those that have lost their lives over sheer hatred and ignorance. Only by doing this will we create a movement that will change the world for future generations…
Let’s all join together and spread acceptance and love for everyone around us