In recent years I have met more and more transgender people in various stages of transitioning. I understand why some people have issues understanding it as I myself have some difficulty understanding why anyone would want to be any gender other than female. Alas, there are men who do like to be men and feel they are male. Crazy if you ask me. ;)
Seriously, though, for a while I did have some difficulty truly understanding what it would be like to be born in the wrong type of body. I think I still do. For a while I thought my issue was based on cognitive heuristics, a need to know the gender of the person I am talking to in order to know which box to put them in. Today, though, I think I finally figured out what my hang up is. Grammar...and a complete distaste for making mistakes--especially when it comes to grammar.
I've heard the different pronouns out there to be used instead of she or he. I could get behind that. Language changes with the times, but it wasn't until just this month that I actually heard someone use these new pronouns, and I felt like a kid on Christmas morning, excited with something new to play with. But what really made me understand my hangup was an email I received today where a person included under his signature line and contact information another line that read "Pronouns: he, him, his". A light bulb lit up over my head. Ah ha! I now feel completely comfortable speaking to this person because I won't make the mistake of using the wrong pronoun and inadvertently offending him. Awesome!
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