There Are A Lot Of Great Trans People Out There

We are...

Sirius XM Radio CEO
Pharmaceutical CEO
Computer Scientists
NASA Scientists
Aeronautical Engineer
Test Pilot
Doctors
Lawyers

These are just some of the fields that we are in and another trans man was a Neurobiologist…

Ben Barres: A transgender scientist shares his story
Spectrum News
By Elizabeth Svodoba
14 November 2018

In 1997, a Stanford University neuroscientist wrote a letter to his colleagues. He signed the letter with his birth name, Barbara Barres, but made it clear that from now on he wished to be known as Ben. “Whenever I think about changing my gender role, I am flooded with feelings of relief,” he wrote.

“I hope that despite my trans sexuality you will allow me to continue with the work that, as you all know, I love,” he concluded his letter.
To Barres’ great joy, his fellow scientists responded with unwavering support. What they didn’t know was that he’d been unable to sleep for a week as he mulled whether to transition to male or commit suicide. His new autobiography — published, sadly, after his death last year from pancreatic cancer — testifies to his personal courage on two fronts: first, as a dogged investigator of glia, the brain’s most numerous cells, which many had written off as purposeless; and second, as an advocate for female and gender-nonconforming scientists.
[…]
His distress wasn’t enough to derail his career. Pulling 18- to 20-hour workdays in the lab fulfilled him and kept his identity issues at bay. When he set up his first lab at Stanford in 1993, he jumped into a project he’d begun while completing his Harvard University neurobiology doctorate: figuring out the function of glial cells.

The traditional belief was that glia were the neural equivalent of ‘junk DNA’: they took up space in the brain and served no well-defined purpose. But over time, and despite a series of grant rejections, Barres and his collaborators discovered there was much more to the story. Glia not only convey a variety of signals to neurons, they also control the formation of synapses, the crucial junctions between brain cells.
[…]
Barres’ most lasting legacy, however, may be his dedication to truth in an increasingly truth-averse era. Despite his fear that he could lose the neuroscience career that had taken him so long to build, Barres decided that presenting as his real self trumped that concern (which, especially in the 1990s, was a significant one). His decision, in the months before his death, to record his struggles and triumphs means he will continue to inspire seekers in uncharted territory — scientific and otherwise. “I lived life on my terms,” Barres told his friend Andrew Huberman just before his death.

“I have zero regrets and I’m ready to die,” he added. “I’ve truly had a great life.”

We have so many heroes in our community, it is almost like we push ourselves to excel to show the world that we are so much more that a trans.