My Story Part 33 – Thoughts on Prodigal Sons

Last Thursday I watched the movie Prodigal Sons by Kimberly Reed about her homecoming for her 20th high school class reunion in Helena Montana (You can read about the movie here.). What stuck in my mind from the movie was the part about their trip to Croatia when her brother showed his birth family pictures from his and Kimberly’s childhood to his relatives (He was adopted). Kimberly had a hard time dealing with the photos from her youth when she was a boy.

She said something to her brother like, do you know how I feel when you show those picture to them, they are now laughing at me behind my back. This hit close to home for me, I wonder what happens when I leave the room are they laughing? Are they courteous to our faces and laugh behind our back? I think that many trans-people, who do not pass that well in public, think the same thing because we just had too many people laugh at use to our face and I think that many trans-people are a little guarded when we hear laughing. Saturday, I was walking to the Hartford Pride and there were a bunch of guys coming from the park. One of them said, “Hey, check that out… that’s a dude!” and they all started laughing. That was not the first time that I was laughed at and will not be the last. One of the first times that I was laughed at was when I was on an elevator and I stepped off, as the doors closed and the elevator moved on to the next floor, I heard laughter coming from it.

For me, I have become overly sensitive to laughter and I can understand Kimberly sensitivity to her brother showing the pictures and her worry about being laughed at by others. Later in the movie, she apologizes to her brother and said that she realizes that it is her problem and that she took it out in him. I also realize that I am overly sensitive and must work on correcting it. In addition, I have developed coping skills, I think of them as idiots, that they have problems with their own self-esteem problems and are take it out on others.