Transgender

 Gender dysphoria is when a child wants to be the opposite gender.  When I was young, we had very well defined gender roles.  Girls played with dolls, wore dresses and were supposed to be dainty.   I was, none of the above.  I couldn’t see how pretending a doll was human, made any sense, I loved playing sports and with cap guns (with which my father who always wanted a boy, happily supplied me) and I hated dresses mostly because it was near impossible to ride a bike in a dress, or run around playing cowboys.  Even now at the age of 77, I always wear pants.  Of course, it’s more socially acceptable now!  As I grew older, I hated the feel of makeup on my face.  My mother tried to gently introduce me to makeup. I refused!  Even now, I wear no makeup!  When I was in the convent, I saw how lovely the Sisters looked with no makeup, so I saw no need for it.

       Finally, I told my mother I was planning to grow up to be a man.  My wise mother laughed and said, “you have no choice!”

       What the world associated with womanhood was makeup, dresses etc.  So I naturally, thought something was wrong with me.  So did my parents!  

     But when I matured, I fell in love with a super man and had a boy (who is adult now, of course).  He married and they had 4 children and we loved keeping the grandkids, overnight every weekend for many years and of course, spoiling them!  :). 

     What I had as a child, is what 80% of children get… “gender dysphoria”. It’s a stage most children pass through and probably partially due to the strict “rules” males and females are supposed to follow in our society.  Except now, should a child be suffering the very temporary condition, some parents allow the multination of their bodies and more.  It’s become a cash cow for providers of such surgeries.  But some institutes no longer do this type of surgery because studies suggest there is a higher rate of suicide among surgically altered individuals.

      Our gender is encoded in the DNA of each one of the 5 billion cells of our bodies.  That is unless the DNA can be changed, we are the gender we are born into.  Bottom line, I loved being a mother and grandmother and wife to my sweet husband (we were married 54 years until he passed away).  But I still wear pants and no makeup!  It’s called diversity of humans!