@le:
If you all don't mind me asking this, was the change of gender pronouns by your family and close ones after trans immediate, immediate with some accidental slips (I can see some people unintentionally calling a trans-person with wrong pronouns due to force of habit) or gradual?
No one in my family really switched over immediately. Been out to then for 10 years and they still make slip ups to this day. But I don't hear any malice and they self correct immediately so I don't get offended by it.
@Nolus:
I read an article that I should not have read. Why am I so foolish as to say "Hey, let's see what people say who don't approve of transsexualism/transgenderism?" and click on that link and actually read through the thing and also read the comments?
How do you guys deal with this? I mean, sure, I should really try and not read such articles, but sometimes, it just comes out of thin air? Like when someone wrote I didn't matter in a discussion because I'm not male. That my opinion and arguments were irrelevant. It sent me so deep that I cut myself (this was some months ago).
I'll try my damnedest to stay away from writings that will surely do me no good, but what do I do if I encounter a situation where I'm told my feelings/thoughts/opinions don't matter? At those times, I question myself too: am I healthy? Are my feelings valid? Am I broken? Do I deserve sympathy?
How do you cope with these feelings (if you have these)?
I try to stay away from those articles. So many people are hurtful in the comments especially. So even though I want to try to "understand the other side" all I can see is people who stay in their own little box not thinking things might be different if they looked out. And it makes me angry.
As for situations where people say your opinions don't matter, the important thing is to remember that they do actually matter and to keep at it. Other people don't define you. YOU do. But I understand it can be hard to get over a feeling of someone saying you don't matter, because you're different. I can say this for sure. You ARE healthy. Your feelings ARE valid. You are NOT broken.
@Noqanky:
It's not like it's a choice to heed them or not. Even while knowing they talk shit and are wrong, the challenge still lies in overcoming self-image issues that result from my having been unable to really be yourself for so much of your life.
This is pretty valid too. Like, a lot of my life I was living behind a curtain or mask, trying not to show the real me. Because it was "unacceptable" or people would "hurt me" which was probably a fairly valid fear at the time.It took a long time for me to fully accept myself as is, and even with my almost complete femininity, I still backslide sometimes. It's scary. But overcome-able, with time and outside acceptance.