Suicides, It Is What Society Does To Us

When you hear over and over again that you’re sick, perverted, when you’re constantly harassed, when you’re shunned by your family it is bound to take a toll on you.

The sports writer who became a woman
I didn't understand how hard it was going to be for her
Houston Chronicle
By Randy Harvey
November 5, 2015

He called to make an appointment to meet in my office. I asked him the reason. He said he needed to discuss something in person, not over the phone.

When he arrived at the appointed time, he sat across from my desk and told me almost before I had a chance to greet him that he had been living outside work as a she.

He — suddenly, she — paused to see if I had a reaction. A thousand thoughts raced through my mind. Not one involved which restrooms she should use. I didn't have any idea it would become an issue.

It was a different time, a different place: April 2007, Los Angeles. But I was painfully reminded of it this week in Houston, as anti-HERO advocates overwhelmingly prevailed at the polls by making restrooms for transgenders the issue in their campaign.

But not too different of time and place as this week’s vote showed. Society still wants us to be pushed back into those little boxes. If you can integrate into society you have no problem, but if you can’t society can make your life a living hell.

When we walked into the restaurant, the greeter said, "Hello, gentlemen."

She didn't hear him. Or she acted like she didn't hear him.

That's when I knew she hadn't chosen an easy path. Or that an easy path hadn't chosen her.

Some in the community say that she wasn’t trans because she detransitioned, that if she was really trans she would have stuck it out. But I say she was just as trans as any of us, it was just that she couldn’t stand the pressure society forces on us. That this is why it is called Gender Dysphoria.