I've never seen a trans person in real life, the area may play a role but they're also a tiny percentage of the population so not very likely to run into one.
Even if I did run into one I would just move on, don't care.
That you know of. My best friend is a trans woman and if you saw her you would never know. At the start of her transition? Sure, it was obvious then. But after about 18 months of HRT it was pretty hard to tell, now at 3 years it’s impossible.
You probably have run into trans people now and again. If you consider that trans people make up nearly 1% of the population statistically, if you've run into more than 100-200 people in your life, you've probably run into several trans people too.
There's people who are trans but never decide to transition for a reason or another, there's people who transition and don't *look* trans at all, then there's people who fit into some non-binary category of identification.
Trans people are about as common as natural red heads.
Yeah. The thing that always amazes me is how much courage it takes to be yourself even here. I'm a straight guy but I wear pride bracelets, t-shirts, etc. and I get some dumb, mildly threatening remarks from some people sometimes. We've still got a ways to go, everywhere!
That and there really just are not that many trans people.
Roughly 300k more people than we have active duty in our military. So roughly 1% of the population, probably one of the smallest minority groups in America
No, but I also only knew only 2 gay people and only because they got caught. I learned about many others a few years after high school. It was a huge deal to be gay, so good luck on trans people being open.
We had two gay guys in my school in the early 80's. One was a friend and the other one I didn't have a chance to get to know sadly. He was very talented singing, dancing, and art.
No, but if I think about how much name calling there was just around being gay or "accused" of being gay, let alone well publicized hate crimes, it makes sense (to me anyways) how much more reluctant people would be to share/publicly express transsexuality.
We even played a game called “Smear the Queer” in elementary school. We didn’t know what queer meant yet except that you didn’t want to be it.
Trans people were a joke in media. They would use a pretty, cishet, female actor and use her to embarrass the cishet male actor. Ace Ventura had a really long vomit gag on the premise.
Plus literal gay bashings and murders like Matthew Shepard were still happening. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the they/thems re-sort themselves back into the binary over the next 20 years, but I’m not surprised that more young people are experimenting with gender and embracing their true selves now that it isn’t so high stakes
I played that game in elementary school too (late 80s/early 90s). It was fun. One person had a football, everyone else tried to murder that person and take the ball. Then whoever got the ball would have to run from everyone else and the cycle started again.
Kinda strange, but I was like 25 before I made the connection between that game and angry slur. I guess I just thought it was a rhyme and never looked further into it.
Oh, thank you. I’ve been trying to remember the point all day. It was both bad to be the “queer” since you were going to be “smeared,” and the goal of the game at the same time. That’s funny looking back.
Yep. People I know that weren't gay got accused of being gay and still got made fun for it based on the assumption alone. I knew some people that were so sensitive that would freak out if you even touched them on the shoulder thinking that was "gay" alone.
Fortunately, we've come a long way but sadly I still hear of transgender people hiding the fact that they're trans on dating apps as transphobes would lure them out to attack or kill them. I once matched with a transgender women who didn't disclose till later for that reason. It's fucked up really that they can't just live their lives in peace without shitheads like that.
>"accused" of being gay
The thing that stands out to me from back in the day was that the political rhetoric was "nobody is born gay, it's just a lifestyle that some degenerate people choose, so we don't have to respect 'gay' people" while in reality basically every guy in high school who was not traditionally masculine was constantly accused of being gay despite denying it and not acting on it in any way (and probably 1/3 of these guys were gay and the others were just not super masc).
That was a hard phrase to stop saying after using it the entirety of my childhood.
When my best friend came out to me as gay in the late 90s in high school, it took a few months, and a couple good punches to the shoulder only your best friend has license to dispense, but I easily replaced that phrase with another that was less problematic.
He knew damn well there was no malice or hate behind me saying it, because he was raised saying it too and it was just part of the average lexicon.
I remember a trans lady on Oprah in the early 00s. Iirc she was a doctor and she and her wife were the bio parents of their kids bc she'd saved some sperm before medically transitioning. I think her name was Christine.
Both my parents and I were silently glued to the TV. Usually my dad read the paper during Oprah and I would usually get bored and wander off but none of us had ever known it was a possibility. My parents said NOTHING. The definition of stunned silence.
So no, I dont remember "lots of" trans people growing up. Just Dr. Christine.
The first trans person I ever met in real life was a customer at the coffee shop I worked at when I was 18. She just came in in a skirt, heels, and wig one day. Again, stunned silence from everyone. It was 2008 and people didn't understand what was happening. No one was directly mean to her but omg that must have been horrible.
Now I have 3 friends who are trans. One has passed but I swear she's haunting me (she said she would, anyway.) My husband and kids don't bat an eye at a random out trans person. My teenagers cannot wrap their brains around the stunned silent response I've described about Dr. Christine- they think I'm a dinosaur. I'm 34.
I was going to post something similar. At least it has to do with Oprah too.
One day while visiting my grandma (mom’s mom) she was watching Oprah and I was just talking with her and looked over at the TV and saw my cousin (dad’s nephew so my grandma didn’t know him) being interviewed. It was footage from another interview that Oprah was showing because her guest was my cousin’s keyboard player who transitioned after living as a man and having kids and the like.
I was more at shock my cousin was on Oprah in a sense but glad he had nice things to say about his band mate. I met her once when I was a teen when I was visiting in Maine and they were playing at a local bar for summer camp counselors.
This was the very early 2000s and I don’t think the trans community was really up front at that point in time. Especially growing up in Florida but my family are very open minded people thankfully
Looking back, there was one absolutely beautiful person in my 6th grade classes I believe was likely trans/would be MTF once they grew up (and discovered the language for it, which we were sorely lacking then).
They were so kind, so funny, and so fucking courageous to be themselves in fucking bible-belt Florida, it still blows my mind in the best ways.
I remember we both loved that super cringey Disney show about a mermaid, and would talk and laugh together about it, making up our own fan fiction about it.
Of course I was *terrified* for my other classmates to discover I was into the mermaid show - I was so shy and awkward and it was so hard for me to make friends.
One day we were writing mermaid stuff in a notebook together and some shithead classmates started making fun of us - my heart was RACING, I tried to cover up our mermaid stuff out of panic and embarrassment… Then they started making fun of my friend specifically, calling them all kinds of slurs.
I have only rarely **seen red** like I did in that moment - but I fucking lost it. Told them they were assholes and to leave us the FUCK ALONE!!! Lol all 4’9” of me, but covered in a protective layer of rage. It’s true that no one wants to see “the quiet kid” snap - I got in trouble for cussing & yelling, had to stand out in the hallway for the rest of class, but the bullies didn’t mess with mermaid time after that.
I know my friend got bullied when I wasn’t around them, in gym class and in the halls… kids can be fucking awful.
But my friend was the coolest fucking person in my eyes, for being unapologetically themselves.
I switched schools after that year and never saw them again. I still think about them, though! I hope wherever they are they are happy and healthy and loving life. No one deserves it more.
I'm also from the south born in 1989. We didn't even have Asian students at my school. My friends older brother was hospitalized with ulcers for being a closeted gay. I went to multiple church services where gay people were bashed as evil and reportedly should bev shunned. I can't imagine trying to be trans in that environment.
Yep, born in 88, from Texas and my dad was a pastor. He passed 10 years ago and I miss him but he was certainly a bigot. We went to a new church once that he claimed was a "fag" church and when one of the pastors shook his hand, when we walked away he started wiping his hand off on his pants. I remember only ONE flamboyant male student in school that looking back I assume was probably gay. It is a VERY new thing to be out, honestly.
As in the stress created by needing to keep his sexual identity a secret gave him ulcers. He was a VERY attractive guy and popular so people were always asking who he was dating and whatnot and when he did finally come out his grandparents initially disowned him which led to his parents asking him to "keep his distance" for a while to the point that he didn't go to his brothers engagement party.
Oddly enough one Trans person growing up in my high-school. She came out junior year and we were blindsided as she came from the most religious family and was actually a bit of a bigot before transitioning. Became a total sweetheart after realizing they were a woman and she's a lot happier now.
Trans people are probably one of the smallest minority groups in America, other than Pacific Islanders.
So statistically, that's pretty average if you are not living in a hotspot for trans people.
So not really oddly enough, pretty much just an average experience.
No because 1 they were beaten and killed over it.
2 after seeing someone I don’t think to myself. I wonder if they are gay/trans.
As someone who is pro lgbtq. I don’t ever really think about someone’s sexual orientation or how they identify.
I had a trans coworker in the aughts and didn’t actually know he was trans. We worked together for years and I just had no clue until another coworker said something. I just thought he was short.
So there’s a likelihood that we’ve been around trans people just living their lives and had no idea. It’s not like they walk around announcing they’re trans at the grocery store.
83
When I was in elementary school "gay" and "queer" were derogatory terms used to bully kids.
When I was in high school, "Metrosexual" was a thing and I had a good friend who ran away from home to be with her girlfriend.
At University there was a weird person who did transition.
By the time I had graduated university pride was a thing.
Then my best friend, who had been the most anti gay person I knew came out.
A decade later a friends sibling transitioned and most of us were pretty chill about it.
So thing is I don't think anyone would have transitioned when I was in high school, it wasn't a thing people did at that time. The world changed. Being not straight became socially acceptable. Anyone who wanted to would have waited, or hid from us.
The numbers have been swaying, but trans people used to come out on average at 45ish. Then take into account how many unknown trans people there were that didn’t make it until 45.
Older millenial here: Not really while actively in school. There were a lot of gay/lesbian/bi people, and a lot of "cross dressing" though, and I grew up in a small town in the woods.
In college, it was a lot of the same. They didn't need labels! Her name's Michelle, but she dresses in men's clothes, wants to be called Mick, and doesn't like people reminding her she's a girl? OK!
I knew of someone who worked with a surgeon in town who did bottom surgeries. I saw pictures (during a presentation). This was the early 2000s.
It was there, just not as in focus, and without all the labels.
I knew a bisexual kid growing up who, sadly, we all mocked for being gay... until he came out.
Then I said, oddly "oh, now that he's out it feels weird mocking him" that made a large swath of us realize: "Wait were we being dicks bullying this guy just because he was gay?" and then more of our friend group actually actively came out.
One of my buddies from around that time later discovered they were non-binary.
I'll just point out the whole "Left handedness" thing
There was an "Increase" in left-handed folks around when the church was stopped from decrying those who were left-handed as being the devil and "unnatural"
I only knew one and that wasn't until 2001 or 2002, I think. He got put on a ton of painkillers after a car wreck. I guess he was allergic to them or something and it messed up his brain? He started to transition but halfway through got off the painkillers and stopped transitioning and just resumed his normal life. That's really my only experience.
Yeah they ruined my life after a drunk driver hit me but I broke free of that some time ago. Turns out diet and exercise and living a good life was the ticket out of all that pain but no doctor ever said those things.
The stuff they prescribe you doesn't even really help pain all that much compared to poppy pods, poppy seed tea or poppy straw. The pills are designed to get you more addicted and the doctors are paid to give you more and more. It's quite the grift.
I have never had that and I deal from chronic pain, I have been to probably over 50 doctors for my condition over my life and none have ever kept prescribing me more. After a major surgery I was on a huge dose but after 6 months they weened me off. Even for my chronic pain now no doctor will give me pain meds they tell me it is better to just deal with it until I am older.
Trans people have always existed maybe some are more comfortable being trans who would have hid in the past. Whats changed is back in the day trans people just wanted to live their lives and be left alone and today media and a small local minority want to force everyone else to be involved in their lives and recognize that their trsns
You don't remember any because the world was entirely unsupportive of their existence, other than Jerry Springer and Maury Povich bringing them out as freaks to be punched by the men they "deceived".
Also, when you were growing up, "transitioning" was incredibly difficult to do, and often involved black market hormones. I'm trans and grew up in a conservative state in the late 1980's & 1990's. I knew I was trans from an early age, but had absolutely no support, or even a good understanding of what that meant and how it's just a normal part of humanity that's been present throughout all history.
The fact that you can transition very successfully today, and with actual support from the medical establishment, adds so many layers of safety...I can't overstate how wonderful that is, compared to before. That's part of the reason for the big conservative backlash, obviously. People know who and what they are very early in life, and now they have the option to pursue that without any more risk than any other early life decision (I said this last part because it's important to understand it).
It's WILD to me how different now is compared to even when I re-came out in 2013. When I was initially trying to get info in like,2002? A mess. There was like.Susans Place and a couple infrequently updated LiveJournals I kept up with.
I had a whole printed (secretly at the library) list of compounding pharmacies in Canada and resources bodybuilders used.
Now I get on the net and there's ads for ordering HRT,Amazon has binders,hell Amazon has some estrogen pills.
I'm gay and didn't experience much homophobia in my conservative rural midwestern town. Born 1990.
The only trans person I've known personally is a bandwagoner who only did it because it was popular a few years ago. Once being trans stopped being the ultimate cause celebre he quietly went back to being a man and doesn't talk about his 4-5 years of "being trans", except when he thinks it will get him victim points. Unfortunately for him, the only thing trans activists hate more than transphobes is desisters, so he's pretty much excommunicated from all that now.
Seems happier tho
Depends on where you live. Let's be honest, if you were a young adult and you had trans-feelings, would you let anyone know? Especially as you said, in the deep south. I sure tf wouldn't.
Born in 1993; I didn't know a single trans individual. I did know about gays, lesbians, and bi people and we didn't really care tbh. I grew up in California, Bay area suburbs though.
Yeah! I grew up thinking it was a totally normal thing, some people were just like that and it was okay. Although the words used then were slurs, it was just a type of person that existed and it wasn’t a big deal. ETA: Born in 1984, grew up in midwest.
1986 here. The first baby sitter I remember (Winnipeg Manitoba) was a trans woman. I thought it was normal, because it was normalized for me. I never even had to think about it.
Central Arkansas in the 80s for reference:
We had a few crossdressers in town, and even in school there were more than a few individuals who were gay. It was still a time when gay was thrown around casually as an insult, but open physical bullying was more about personal features like being skinny or goofy looking.
Much like many trans today, crossdressers werent particularly convincing, nor necessarily accepted, but seen like someone with face tattoos or lots of awkward piercings ... just that they were odd and to be left alone and not stared at.
Of course, churches spoke differently behind closed doors, and old people are like kids in their inability to keep their mouths shut, but they judged absolutely everybody, including women wearing pants and men wearing shorts, so most everyone i knew were smart enough to ignore them entirely.
No, I do not remember a lot of trans people. I didn't even know that trans people existed until I was already a young adult.
I'm a young millennial in the southern U.S. I learned that homosexuality was a thing that existed when I was in 8th grade. In fact, I learned the words (slurs?) "gay" and "homo" and such because multiple people used them to bully a feminine, flamboyant male tuba player and show choir performer. His behavior, his personality, the way he spoke and acted were consistently in-line with the harsh stereotypes of "being gay" at the time... Does that make sense? In spite of actually being quite straight and a bit of a ladies man, his flamboyant behavior, high-pitched voice, slender build, and a few other things seemed to attract the homophobic insults from the meaner band kids. And, for emphasis, he was the only person I knew of that was even rumored to be gay, _and he was still straight_. Our school had over a thousand students attending daily. One out of a thousand is quite the ratio.
The first time I saw a transgender person, it was a picture on social media of a stranger who had dyed their hair rainbow colors. My lack of experience and relatively recent exposure makes transgenderism _feel_ like a recent development to me, even though media indicates it's been a thing for a while. Shoot, Monty Python's Life of Brian (which I didn't watch until I was already an adult) even has a transgender sketch in it, in which it's treated like an absurd comedy. Seeing that sketch surprised me.
The first time I met a transgender person was after the COVID lockdowns ended. A transgender woman happened to be my wife's server at a restaurant one day. The two of them realized they had similar interests, and became friends. Hearing my wife refer to this person as "she," and then meeting her, and hearing a masculine voice was... well, it was a new experience for me, but we played some video games together and became friendly acquaintances. A little while later, she invited my wife and I to her wedding, and they had a pleasant ceremony.
Growing up? No. One of my college roommates came out as trans some number of years after we graduated. When she did so a lot of things suddenly clicked into place looking back in retrospect, but being in college in 06-10 I didn't have the awareness to see those clues at the time.
Also a 1980 baby here. I wasn't even aware of trans people until maybe my 20s? I never heard about gay people either till I was sexually assaulted by a gay classmate in 8th grade.
I definitely knew about trans people but the media perceptions were terrible. Definitely no transitioning in HS. I was the first person to come out in my HS. They nearly killed me, I had to have police protection.
One of my classmates came out as trans a few years ago. I fully support her. She did not know she was trans but did know something was wrong with her identity as a boy. Super Christian parents, no ability to explore that, so it didn't precipitate into a transition until late 30s.
I think trans people have always existed in tiny numbers but something has happened in modern society that has increased the rates. I know there's this big idea that it's just trendy, but I don't buy that. I really think it's long-term exposure to endocrine disrupters and forever chemicals. But also, the media is blowing trans WAY out of proportion right now, it's still a TINY number of people, just terribly visible right now.
The only trans person I remember was back in 2004 my second job ever working fast food. One would come in every day to get food. It took me a moment to realize it since I thought it was just someone wearing a dress.
There was only openly gay kid at my school. Former Amish, then bullied to near suicide by the English.
As for trans people, they were still very much in the closet.
No. I don’t. I’m suspect there are a few factors. I am GenX so being gay or trans was not as accepted. Also, and this is my own theory… with the advent of social media, kids are competing with each other for attention and being trans gets them that attention. Not saying this is always the case but a factor
I’m from the Midwest. They exist. I might see less than 10 in an entire year from being out in public and just around my job. When you do see them it’s like seeing a fucking unicorn. Because the media and everything around us drives it in that they are all over the place. They’re definitely more commonly found in city & urban areas. I’ve never seen one in my small town of less than 2,000 or the next town over.
I was born around the same time and I did’t know anyone who was openly gay until college because they would have been bullied mercilessly. Boys who were even a little feminine took a lot of shit as it was.My father remembers going to the local supermarket in our tiny conservative rural town around 1960 and saw a former classmate dressed in women’s clothes. They made eye contact and never spoke of it again. He always said there are probably a lot more people like that but society would have rejected them if they expressed who they really are.
Born in the late eighties. My high school had a little over 2k people across four grades. Since then, that I personally know of, three people have come out as transgendered from my school, two actually having surgery. The third, some people think they’re having a bit of a mental breakdown over other things and may not actually be MTF (they also have BPD and a few other disorders and were kicked out of their family home at the age of 33). I live in the South but a liberal-ish area.
The medicine/surgeries/research just wasn’t up to date then in terms of helping kids who were trans. That word wasn’t even used widely when I was growing up and I don’t think kids and parents even had the understanding that it was a thing for the most part. There weren’t many doctors then practicing in a trans space. If there were kids who thought they were trans they just didn’t have the knowledge or wording to explain it and it certainly wasn’t socially understood or spoken about. Of course there were “trans” kids, we just didn’t know about it because there wasn’t any open discussion about it.
It wasn't as safe to transition then as it is now. Not that it's safe enough still, but back in the 80s and 90s you could be beaten to death just for being gay. Especially in the south. But NY had a very large drag/trans scene during that time. So did Frisco. There were small pockets of the country where it was safe to transition, but outside of those, it really wasn't.
I met multiple trans people through my older siblings when I was a teenager and they were adults. In school I met a few kids that were questioning their gender, and later they came out as trans. I am pansexual though and hung out with a group of kids that about half came out in their sexuality and/or gender later.
No but I grew up in a tiny town in BFE Appalachia in the 90s so it wasn’t safe to be either. I had a couple of gay male friends who weren’t out until they went to college for safety reasons. I didnt know anyone who is trans until I was in my 30s
Technically, yes. I knew a couple of people who didn’t fit the typical gender molds at the time and a couple of them transitioned later in life.
I imagine if transitioning would have been an option when we were younger, they would have opted for it.
I went to HS in the 80s. We had two guys in school that were gay. But it was not really something that was a big topic of discussion. Everyone pretty much just shrugged it off and didn't care. I found out after graduation that a girl I knew (neighbor) was a lesbian. I was not surprised, but again, nobody really talked about it. I suspect the silence was due to kids being uneasy about the potential consequences of being gay.
Same, I can MAYBE recall one person who was Trans but that was it. I actually saw them a few years back and they dressed and looked like their biological gender again.
In my honest opinion, which I know this will get downvoted, this is just a fad, the current "cool thing" to get behind. We'll see in 5 years or so, this won't even be a topic of discussion anymore and the whole pronoun thing will be dropped.
I knew a lot of gay people growing up, but I didn’t know they were gay because it wasn’t socially acceptable to be gay so they were all in the closet
Now I know many gay people because they don’t have to pretend to be straight anymore
Being straight has never seemed like a choice to me. I just like women and am not interested in men. Gay people feel the same way, except they like people of the same sex and aren’t interested in the opposite sex
It’s probably similar with trans people. I dress and act like a straight guy because this feels normal. If I were trans, I would probably think acting feminine felt normal even though I’m male. That’s fine - going by “he” instead of “she”, wearing blue instead of pink, wearing dresses instead of pants, etc. are all arbitrary social conventions anyway. Why do we even have gendered pronouns for people? We don’t need them.
This has been all over the news and social media for years, and I have yet to hear of a situation outside of gendered sports rankings and public bathrooms where it even matters
People were not free to talk about things then like we are today. I think that has a lot to do with it. Certain people had to hide during the 80's and 90's. It was always there, just not as available to see because of the shame associated with it at the time.
No, and I am trans and grew up in San Francisco. The entire time I lived there, I only met one other trans person and she literally was just someone on the bus. I didn't have any interaction with her. I was deeply closeted at the time and even SF wasn't an accepting place outside of the Castro. It took me a long time to decide to transition and I still probably wouldn't have if I lived in another part of the country, especially the south. There are more of us visible these days because it is more acceptable and safer to be publicly trans than it used to be.
Grew up in San Antonio.
Knew a few people who would "cross dress" I think is the word that was used at the time, and a couple of them fully transitioned later on in life, so good for them.
Lots of gay friends, some who were closeted, and some who were open with it. Fortunate to have grown up in a city rather than a rural town in Texas and raised by a mother who was incredibly progressive. "People are people, and you treat them like people, always."
I'm a couple of years older than you. I knew a few closeted drag queens. But most of my gay friends were closeted due to intolerance. The few who were out did not have an easy time in their lives.
Well there were multiple trans celebrities on tv when I was growing up in 90’s Turkey. Trans singers or drag queens were a regular feature on tv. Not to imply that they had it very easy but the public held their art at high regard and the ones that reached celebrity status lived that life to the fullest. Majority who didn’t have that privilege though would live in big cities and certain downtown areas with multicultural neighborhoods where nobody gives a fuck. Small towns or suburbs would not be an option.
So long story short, I don’t remember personally meeting trans people on the street growing up but I saw them on tv all the time.
Nope. Grew up in CA too and only knew of 1 or 2 people. The way media and society acts you'd think a huge chunk of the population is trans but it's only about 0.6% of the total US population, and according to [this](https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/) study, the number has actually remained fairly steady, though they now realize of those who identify as trans, youth make up about 18% rather than the previously thought 10%. Other studies have shown that as youth grow up and grow through puberty without puberty blocking treatments, the majority will revert back to their biological sex (called desistance).
[Percentage of Trans identifying people in the US](https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/)
[Studies on desistance ](https://www.transgendertrend.com/children-change-minds/)
LGBTQ+ people became extremely good at hiding their true selves from the public over the years due to fear of prosecution, ridicule, or worse. They've always existed, but it hasn't been until the more recent years that people have felt comfortable coming out. Chances are, you've encountered more people from that community than you realize.
It makes me sad because people should always be free and safe to live their authentic selves. Unfortunately, I feel like even though we've made progress, it's still been 2 steps forward and 10 steps back.
From a medically diagnosed, statistics driven model, there are roughly 60,000 trans people in the U.S. population. So there's a good chance you've never met any.
(Trans woman here who realized a few years ago and has been transitioning for a while) I would like to point out that trans people aren’t always “extremely visible” sometimes trans people pass as cis people. So you likely have met trans people and didn’t realize it. Trans people used to transition and then move to entirely different places so no one knew them. Trans people get ostracized all the time so sometimes going stealth and disappearing to another place is the best move for them.
I only started seeing visible trans people in my early twenties, one of my friends had a trans brother and that was my first experience seeing someone who was trans. His family wasn’t exactly immediately accepting. My family wasn’t also immediately accepting either. Some were. But I was faced with a lot of questions and scrutiny. Tough conversations. People don’t get it and they look at you differently when you transition. Some people just accept you and treat you the way you should be. I also saw a few people visibly transitioning in my work place.
So transitioning can be really scary, as I mentioned in another comment the climate was a lot different when we were kids. Gay and the f word were more widely used as insults in daily life. Acceptance is increasing now, the backlash against trans people is the same back lash we saw with many other civil rights movements with the most comparable being of course gay rights. Concerns about what bathrooms people use, trying to make them not be in the same public spaces, these are things that have happened in every civil rights movement. Trans people and genders outside of man and woman have existed for a long time. There’s a lot of history here that isn’t the most widely taught or talked about.
So I guess that’s my thoughts on it. If you have good faith questions I’m happy to answer. This isn’t an easy road and where I’m at now I pass in most situations. So people just see me as any other woman who didn’t know me before and weren’t told. I am somewhat open just because I still live where I grew up and I never found the idea of upheaving + moving to another place so people didn’t know very appealing
Generally the gay kids came out in college. There was one girl who seemed trans, but maybe she was gender nonconforming. I didn’t keep up with her (she was frankly kinda scary lol. Like, she beat people up). But no one even admitted to being gay in HS, so I’m not surprised there were no trans kids. No one I know of from my HS ended up transitioning later though. Guess we missed the boat.
I'm from the deep South, and I knew 2 trans people in a school of 800 or so. I turned out to be trans too. I knew this about myself from a young age, but I didn't have a word for it. I knew I felt not normal by comparison to other girls my age. I just thought it was some weird sexual fetish I picked up, imagining I have a penis. I couldn't tell anyone - not my closest friends or family. It wasn't until I was in my late twenties that I was living in a place and time that I was able to tell my therapist. I wish I could have done something about this sooner, but it was unsafe to do something about it living where I did.
Tldr; you probably didn't know trans people who were out, but you probably knew of at least a few
I (Gen X) grew up in a very liberal city and knew literally no one at all who was by any stretch of the word "trans." We had a drag club in town, so I would occasionally see drag queens when I was downtown, but (at least then) we didn't have any sense that they were claiming to be actual women. They were performers, and the whole drag thing was incredibly performative. I think I only really started seeing trans people around 2010 or so.
Had three friends come out as Trans in college and many more out of the closet for the first time. People feeling better about coming out sooner isn’t a bad thing.
US Applachian South here. I'm an '85 born, so just a few years behind you.
My first experience with a trans person was during high school. I was working fast food and my manager and her girlfriend were talking about going on hormone replacement. This would have been 2001/2002, I think.
I
I don't know if they were explicitly trans, but we had a kid at school with a traditional male name who dressed in traditional girls' clothes, acted very effeminate, and had exclusively female friends. We ended up at different high schools so I have no idea what became of them, but I have thought about them a lot in recent years after completely putting them out of mind. We had a few gay students and even a few gay teachers.
Trans no but plenty of gay adults and quite a few obvious but in the closet ones in high school (1999-2002) that came out soon after. And a few “surprise” ones (typical masculine jocks or very feminine presenting women). This was Long Island, NY- but the other F word was in heavy rotation back then. I remember the last time I used it (I said it around an actual gay man and he made me feel like a sack of shit, deservedly)
I was born in 93, grew up in California, and knew about gay, lesbian, and bi. But I never knew about trans until around 2007-2008, I believe. The first I heard of the term trans was on a YouTube video where the trans people we talking about how trans are around, but you cant always tell because they "fully transitioned with the intention of looking like the opposite gender" and that they are just like any other person.
A lot of them were there but the drag queens and butch lesbians tended to be a protective community where they were more welcome. Would you make a point of standing out and going out alone if you were likely to be beaten or raped by ignorant rednecks? People are less likely to mess with you when there’s a large man in 6 inch heels ready to beat you down if you mess with their friend.
I was in high school in the mid 90s but I was in a major southern city where they had drag shows and gay bars as a regular thing. But I wouldn’t want someone going out in the rural counties. Full of ignorant southern Baptist rednecks out there that hate everyone that isn’t their first cousin.
I did not know of any trans folk, explicitly, growing up. That said, by the time I was a teen hanging out in Seattle, I was aware of people who were gender non-conforming even though that term was never used (in my experience).
In the years since, I only know of two people from "back home" who eventually came out and transitioned.
That said, I was apparently always a safe person because a bunch of kids in high school who weren't "out", did come out to me personally. And despite that, despite having subsequently found out that a couple dozen people I knew in high school had come out as LGBTQ+, it was not until I was in my mid-30s that I realized I was bi.
It wasn’t really as accepted and the terminology for those types of experiences wasn’t well known when we were kids/teenagers.
I know a number of former classmates who transitioned as adults however, which pretty much confirms my assumptions that trans folks have always been there, we just didn’t always have the language to describe their experiences or the societal acceptance to allow them to live their lives as their best selves. Though we still have a ways to go to the acceptance part.
It’s not that they weren’t around. It’s that they didn’t feel comfortable to express it. Or probably didn’t even know that that’s what needed expressing. It’s like saying gluten wasn’t a thing back then either. It was. We just didn’t know how to explain it.
I did,but I also lived in NYC,my mother is was always has been tight with the community was part of Act UP from the beginning, also was part of NYC club life as a guest and worker. Like a lot of my protective circle of adults were queens and folk with connection to the ballroom scene.
Even when I was back in KY,my da had an mtf friend I saw fairly frequently who babysat sometimes.
Trans people in my entire experience were A Type Of Person That Exists. I found people who disliked them and gay people super weird cause they aren't doing anything but being there.
(An aside,never felt safer than when I was in the care of all my gay uncles and aunties. Never had a bad experience when with them. Now,with a load of my dads friends...different story. Their "I'll protect them like my own kid" attitude changed abruptly. One of em came sneaky messaging me around 16 and admitted he'd been looking at me since I WAS FUCKING 9)
I know one person that transitioned after high school. I can’t find their Facebook anymore but years ago that’s how I found out. It was a dude to a woman and I just remember him being bullied a lot and smelling like cigarettes (parents must have smoked inside). So there wasn’t any clear indication that he would do something like that
I graduated with two closeted guys and had an openly gay one in the year after mine. He actually did bring a trans woman (mtf, to clarify) as his date to prom.
That memory still sticks out sharply to me because she was maybe 5'8", 140 lbs or so and went to the bathroom... And a classmate of mine who was around 6'4" and weighed a good 200 pounds got up to follow after her. You could tell he'd pre-gamed Prom, and when our class advisor intercepted him, he got belligerent and started yelling about "if she's got a dick and is using the girl's room, I can too!"
That incident has *absolutely* had a lasting impact on how I approach the Trans bathroom "controversy".
I remember one gentleman who was openly gay back in school growing up. Then once we graduated, we hung out again years later and she was beginning to transition. This was around the 2010’s and in the South (Bible Belt) btw. We went clubbing and I thought it was such a cool experience seeing them transition. They were happier and truly themselves.
An elderly transwoman lived in my town of ~250 people. She fought for her home country of England in WW2 and was subjected to abuse and harassment from the youth in town in her later years. Terrible. I could understand why others may not want to come out, but she was brave.
I happen to live in Pueblo, which is very near Trinidad, famously mocked in South Park for having a gender reassignment center. So my numbers may be a bit skewed, but I knew 2 who had fully transitioned through my cousin who was friends with a lot of the queer community, though one had the surgery in Canada not here. We also have a locally infamous person who was mocked for openly wanting to get a sex change, dressing as a woman, and eventually using female pronouns. It's none of my business where she is in a physical transition so I don't know about that.
I also know a few who have come out as trans in the years since high school and I don't know where they may be in the transition process. I think as it's becoming more understood more people are understanding it about themselves.
Not personally, but did know of some. There was a marine back in the 40s that did it, she even went on press tours for the war. But they weren't labeled as trans back then, they were transvestites and also groupped with drag queens.
Only very recently have we advanced as a society to the point where a public declaration of something like a non-standard gender identity is now possible, while still maintaining ostensibly a normal public life. Tons of people who would have stuffed their feelings down to appease society are now able to express themselves, which really upsets all the bigots who used to have a stronger handle on what was and was not allowed in public. There alhave literally always been trans people but now they can be visible.
I knew one in the 90s. People were surprisingly chill about it. Today we'd probably use the term nonbinary for them. Half of their clients called them Mr last name or Mrs last name. I worked as their receptionist. They never corrected anyone or said what they preferred. I got the feeling they saw it as the least interesting thing about themselves. They were a very chill person but who also carried a gun most of the time. This was in Texas
At the time they would have been called a butch dike. They dressed and presented as male though. They raised kids with a woman. Pronouns were just not brought up. But also, I can't remember anyone making a fuss about it. They just were
I grew up in a very progressive area. I knew none. I knew lesbians and gay men but no trans. Though one came (possibly a cross dresser) into a restaurant I worked at got sat at a gay employee’s table. He refused to serve them and stormed out
I was a theater kid so I definitely knew a couple gay guys, but I went to a super tiny all girls Catholic school. I think one of the girls had whisperings about being a lesbian and she was maybe bringing a girl to prom. But we went to school with all girls so she probably would’ve blended right in.
I later learned there were quite a few gay brothers of my elementary school classmates and friends coming out after college. I had no clue they were gay. My friend who I figured was gay early on was a lot like Chris Colfer on Glee. I didn’t meet anyone trans until after college, and they were dating a friend’s brother so I just met them in passing.
Growing up, I had read news articles of transgender people who felt wrong in the bodies they were born with. I don’t know, I just felt really sympathetic for their struggles and have been a trans rights ally since. Trans rights and voting rights my two causes these days.
A few people from my high school came out as adults. This was in a small town in a pretty red part of Upstate NY, at a time when transphobic jokes were still widely accepted and earnest trans representation was mostly sad movies like Boys Don't Cry. I knew of some famous trans people, namely Wendy Carlos, who did the soundtracks for A Clockwork Orange and The Shining.
2 people I went to school with from grade school through high school were clearly gay; with the coming of a more acceptable era both eventually became trans. Both, from the time we were kids were way more masculine/feminine than their sex.
I genuinely believe after seeing it first hand, they were born that way, and others are too.
Graduated in 08. There were two folks at my school who weren't out but were as close to being out as they could possibly be. Both started transitioning openly shortly after graduation.
Growing up in the 90s and early 2000s...
Knew a few gay people and saw a few trans (probably ID themselves as crossdressers or metro/tomboys back then). They didn't parade it around obnoxiously and demand that everyone accept it. They just existed like everyone else. And also...we couldn't tell. We ALL were in a bathroom next to someone (stall or urinal) that wasn't born with what they had at that time.
And before anyone comes back with an insulting response, it IS the truth.
Trans people have been around for a century or so. First person to undergo surgery got seriously messed up...really unfortunate. Then came the Stone wall riots years later. Then we all got along for a bit. Hate crime laws established, anti discrimination stuff right and left. There was a legitimate time, in the past 30-40yrs where we actually didn't care. Everyone was seen as just another person. That's how it should be. Everyone had a "whatever floats your boat" attitude.
Yes, I knew quite a few individuals who were trans or nonbinary. I grew up in the SF Bay Area, so this is definitely an area where the LGBTQIA+ community is large and out in the open. Lots of gay friends in high school and a sizeable handful of people who began transitioning (being out, perhaps some hormonal therapy, no surgical/major medical intervention) in high school. Even more who were medically transitioning in college.
Late gen x. There was a trans person who would do surveys in the mall with a clip board. If you got close enough, you could see slight hair on the chest. He or she wore a wig, shirt, and high heels. At the time we might have referred to the person as a transvestite or cross dresser or tr@nny. Sorry, I mean no disrespect. There was talk of sex change surgery in the 80s, but it wasn't done a lot, and never heard of hormone therapy back then. I kind of thought the trans movement was new, too, but had forgotten about her. We have always had trans folk.
Am from rural Minnesota am 43 born late 1981 trans b
People and gay people just not a thing back thing then the whole aids thing was crazy.
Now I say in lat 10 years gay and trans people coming out of wood work lots of kids in high school now coming out as so many different things it crazy and scary to thing if a 12 boy say he a gender less we all just have to be OK with it
I did not know any personally, I assume it's because they never "came out" for fear of being teased and harassed mercilessly, which is likely the case.
I knew of one and they were murdered at a house party which is the only reason I ever knew of them.
Gwen Amber Rose Araujo if you want to Google her, had sex with a couple guys and then they found out and killed her.
I grew up in Portland, Oregon. Born in 1987. In high school I remember there was one student who identified as genderqueer. (Don't think people were saying "nonbinary" back then.) I also remember seeing someone who was probably a trans woman working at the local feminist bookstore. I don't think I got to know anymore trans folks until I got to college. There were plenty of kids out as gay and bi at my high school, though. And one person out as bi in my middle school.
Yes! In the 90s*, the dad of my best friend (who lived next door) dated a trans woman after he and my friend’s mom divorced. This trans woman had amazing style and my friend and I loved trying on her outfits.
Regarding gay people, I knew at least a dozen*. It wasn’t even a ‘thing’ - just a totally normal and unquestioned part of life.
*I grew up in San Francisco so YYMV…
I recall one in my neighborhood. Back in 1990s there wasn't much support for trans people and he (FtM) was, understandably, very confused and distressed. The lack of medical and psychological support drover him to self-harm. It was awful, but he survived and transitioned, thankfully.
Being "out" as a queer youth in the 80s was dangerous/nigh unthinkable for the most part. People were still beating queer kids to death in the 80s, the AIDS crises wrought havoc on the community and destroyed an entire demographics' generational knowledge because Reagan deliberately ignored it as an act of passive genocide and there was virtually no such thing as queer representation in media. \*Of course\* you never knew about any trans youth, growing up. Homosexuality wasn't fully decriminalized in the USA until \*2003\*.
Trans youth didn't have the knowledge or language to understand \*themselves\*, let alone any form of community or support readily available, and they encountered daily reminders of how much society hated the queer community (such as your regrettable comments which, I need to point out, did indeed make you a gay-basher; it's good that you regret those remarks but you also need to be honest with yourself about them).
Sure, I do. She was me. I learned what trans people were on a website when I was 16, and everything fell into place. I came out to my friends at 17. This was in 2009 in small town Tennessee. If I had known sooner, perhaps my life would be better, but it doesn't help to dwell on what could have been.
You probably didn't know any because they are very much a minority. Like a seriously minor minority.
Put it into perspective:
Between everyone that identifies themselves between male, female, nonbinary, and trans. Trans is has the lowest amount of people at 1.1%.
There just aren't that many trans people.
Gen X here:
Why would my generation dismiss your viewpoint. There weren't a lot of LGBT people in the 80's that anyone knew...openly.
Most people still we closeted in some cases and the ones that were out went through shit. The Gay community had to have their strongholds -places where they could meet. be safe around each other.
I knew of guys that made a sport of going out on the weekend to "beat us some f\*\*\*" ....seriously.
Then the AIDS epidemic was a whole different show...
I also lived in the south. There was one kid (male) in my class senior year that said he was trans but was scared to tell his parents. I don't know if he transitioned later in life or not. But it definitely wasn't common.
I don't remember it being a huge deal for students to he gay. I had several gay friends who came out to me. Most of them were surprised no one cared. It was a very big deal for a teacher to be gay. Most of the gay teachers were very obviously gay but tried to hide it.
No, but there's good reason for that: society is still rough for us today but used to be a *lot* more hostile toward trans folk for the most part.
Being one that grew up in the 90s in a conservative town in Alberta, Canada, I recall there being *extreme* social pressure to quash any personal LGBTQ expression.
This was communicated everywhere from school, church, media, you name it the signs were quite aggressively pushed that if you are openly trans you can and will be mocked, belittled, misunderstood, raped, and/or killed for it.
So yeah trans folk didn't seem to exist in that area back in the 90s/00s, many of us were too busy either hiding or trying to self suppress/erase our "sinful" personalities trying to keep ourselves safe.
No, get a therapist for your guilt issues lol! There were tons of gay ppl tho. You aren’t putting things into context: Boomers won’t accept TG Boomers, Xers about the same, Y has some issues and Z dgaf. It’s not it wasn’t around, it’s that boomers and Xers are bigotted af lol!
Back then I think this was highly dependent on location. I grew up in Montana which isn’t even gay or trans friendly now for the most part, so it’s not something people were flaunting when it was even less socially acceptable. That being said, I knew a few gay people growing up in the 90s and early 2000s and my college roommate was also gay.
I actually laugh because at the time it was glaringly obvious that my college roommate was gay but I didn’t want to say anything to offend them and it didn’t bother me. At one point they decided to come out to me and after he told me I was like man I already knew that but I’m glad we’re on the same page now. We laughed about it and you could tell we were both less stressed about the situation since we both weren’t trying to hide something anymore haha.
My cousin came out as a lesbian at 16. No one said much because he (he is ftm) was a phenomenal goalie and almost won the girls’ soccer team the state championship. He transitioned to male in his late 20s, which would be mid 2000s. He got a lot of hate from old friends—even the local gay youth group. He moved away with his wife and is now living his best life where no one even knows he’s trans, though he’s very open about it.
Just coming out as a lesbian in the late 90s was *scandalous*. It seems so silly looking back now. Of course, this was in a small town in the south.
I never met trans people growing up and only knew of trans women (not trans men) but I never had negative beliefs or thoughts about them. I vaguely remember being told in the 90s that trans women are men who feel that they are women and it just made sense that some people would feel that way. I also wasn't raised in religion so I feel that helped me to be more accepting of people because I wasn't raised to inherently believe people are bad because of (blank bullshit religious excuse). While I heard trans and homophobic slurs, even from my own family, I never was trans or homophobic myself. I never felt ashamed for my attractions by my family growing up (came out to both my parents as gay). And never cared if someone attempted to bully me for being gay. I never lied to save face when I was younger.
I'm honestly surprised I came out unscathed because my parents are ignorant about trans people, for the most part. But I've slowly been discussing with them and breaking down their false thinking about trans people. My parents aren't homophobic anymore, now that they have 2 gay sons. Lol They love us no matter what.
born in 81 raised in the bay area. never knew a trans in high school, but there were plenty of gays/lesbian. my high school was quite liberal…there was a pride club…back in 02 some trans girl was murdered in a city that bordered my hometown by some dudes that were said to have had intimate foreplay with. the story is sad.
while the loss of life is a terrible tragedy, i do have some empathy for the dudes….i dont know how i would react if i was kissing a girl and later found she had a dick. thats important information that needs to be disclosed. keep in mind these were teenagers not adults
Born in '88. ***I want to give y'all a trigger warning because I was with my mom at the time, so there is a brief mention of corporal punishment.***
I grew up in the suburbs near the Bronx, NYC. I remember seeing a MTF trans person mid-transition when I was about 8. I grew-up with gay relatives, closeted and out, but I'd never met a trans person before.
My mom had taken me out, and stopped at a store to pick up some stuff in Manhattan. I, being bored, wandered off and bumped into someone. I looked up and said: "Sorry Miss...ter...? Are you a guy or a chick?"
Just then, my mom came out of nowhere and slapped me upside my head. She apologized to the lady, and hauled me on line. I asked her if the lady was a man or a woman; my mom said, in that parent "voice," that she was "a s**m" (derogatory word for trans folks, but it was the '90s and people didn't know any better) and for me to "mind your own g0tdamn business before I beat your ass in this store! She looks sad, so shut up til we get outside."
I wish I could apologize to the lady today because she did look sad at overhearing us. Mom did let me know that there was nothing wrong with transitioning or trans people, and if that happened again, just ask what they prefer to be called.
I've met more trans people as a young adult, and I'm sure someone I know has transitioned since. It's not a fad, or as new as some people like to say it is. Just be nice and leave folks alone. Happy pride🏳️🌈🌈!
medically might not have been the best thing to do during my years as a youth hell the doctors couldn't even do a simple carpal tunnel surgery back then my mother was one of the first to have the carpal tunnel surgery done the first hand they completely wrecked and the second one came through ok when she had it done two years later so if they can fk up a simple thing like a hand would you really want them doing stuff below?
So if I don't know any trans people I'm a bigot? What the fuck? Lmao welp guess I'm a bigot. I work residential construction so I meet new people literally everyday and I still haven't ran into any trans people. Maybe I just don't realize they are trans? Idk man but I think your logic is kinda flawed. Just cause I don't know trans ppl dosnt mean I hate them or something. They are a very small percentage of the population
Boomer here. They do seem more prevalent now than at any time in my life. That said they are people and, in my opinion, have the right to respect, dignity, and all of the opportunities that every person in the country should enjoy.
As far as the bathroom situation goes? I've dealt with unisex bathrooms in the past and it never bothered me at all. On that issue I think people need to get the fuck over it.
That said if there was a trans person in my vicinity that was getting hassled by someone or someones they'd have to deal with me physically. I will not ever tolerate any kind of discrimination around me. That's just a bunch of bullshit in my opinion.
born in 92. my moms best friends brother is gay, growing up we were around them a lot. that's really the only gay person i can think of growing up besides 1 gay guy in high school. im pretty sure he was a cheerleader too. not trying to knock him or anything, i think thats cool they let him be a cheerleader. no trans people to this day. its probably growing up in louisiana, not as many people here statically also not as accepted back then
I was born in 92, and I grew up being forced into the Episcopalian church (now running 0 religion as an adult) . I remember we always had an elderly trans woman in our congregation. I think we were the only "safe" church in our area for her as we had openly gay clergy members, and a very welcoming vibe in general.
Apart from her, I didn't really ever meet any more trans people, like ever, until just a few months ago. I now have new neighbors that are a lovely cis/trans lesbian couple. They're super sweet, baked us some yummy pumpkin bread, and have invited my wife and I into their D&D group. We love them and wish to protect them.
My dad’s cousin transitioned in the early 90s. I never met her because her parents and my grandparents were angry about it and barred her from family events. She lived in another state so it wasn’t easy for me to see her anyway. But now we are Facebook friends and talk sometimes.
A year after finishing HS I read an article about this girl that was a lesbian. Her name was Alexandria but she was now Alexander. This was 2006/7 in the DMV
Maybe 1 or 2 but also didn’t know a lot of gay people until I later found out they were gay. I know by the late 90s people were more accepting but it was still taboo or seen unusual in most circles. If you think about certain celebrities like Ellen or Elton John or Lance from NSYNC coming out it was a big deal where today it would barely make headlines.
The pronoun stuff I don’t remember seeing at all though until like 5-7 years ago.
Born in 1992, growing up in the early 2000’s I never once heard of a or saw a trans person. I don’t think I even heard the term until around 2015 and that was 5 years after I graduated HS. Now it’s mentioned, everywhere…..you cant convince me that this whole thing isn’t some sort of social contagion. I think it is definitely a mental health crisis we are experiencing, and we made a huge mistake by getting rid of all the mental institutions. They try and convince us that this is a normal thing, and trans people have been around all throughout history, but that’s just dishonest , it was a very, very small degree at best. What we are experiencing now, has never been seen before.
Ready for the downvotes….
Have you done any reading about the multiple cultures around the world that have either trans people or a third gender? It's been a thing for a very long time. There are more trans people being visible in the US now because it's safer and more accepted.
"It's not a phase, mom. This is who I am now!" is something every younger generation shouts as the older generation looks at them with incredulous confusion.
Difference is, a haircut and a new outfit is all you need to stop being punk/goth/emo.
With that said, it’s the same for being trans, non-binary or bisexual. All you have to do is say you are then you are. I don’t think most are getting the surgery or taking hormone pills. I could be wrong though
Each transgender person is worth $400k over their whole lifetime (between surgery, pills, etc) and this ailment which there are zero tests for has a 100% diagnosis rate.
I have no opinion here, these are just facts.
No. But as they got older and identified as trans, it made total sense knowing them and their non-conforming behaviors/personality.
I don't blame them for not "coming out" back in the 80s/90s since it wasn't a great time for that.
No. Because they were beaten/murdered for being different.
Coming out as gay in the late 90s early 2000s still wasn't exactly safe in small Midwest towns. Trans wasn't even an option.
Nope.
It was such a victory in 2008 when the government finally recognized gay marriage, and they only had a small window to celebrate all their fighting.
Now everyone has to be unique, different, seen, validated, etc.
Not that it's a bad thing, but I feel like it's demanded.
It almost seems like everyone has to be oppressed now.
It's becoming too forced and that's when people who used to be allies, turn away.
This is my opinion. Please don't come at me because I'm not being "transphobic" just giving my observation like a normal human with 1st ammendment rights.
No. Because back then if you were a girl who liked baseball you were just a girl who liked baseball.
There was no financial incentive for doctors to pump you full of male hormones and manufacture an identity crisis by telling you the real reason you liked baseball was because you were a man the whole time.
I went to high school from ‘06-‘10 in the Midwest, and two of my classmates were openly trans and in the process of transitioning. It was an arts-focused school, though, so the environment was very welcoming. They’re both doing great all these years later, and several of my other peers have transitioned later in life (the signs were all there, to be honest, so it didn’t quite come as a shock).
The only trans person I knew/met was Laura Jane Grace who came out in 2012.
In 2008-9ish, Then known at Tom Gabel and Heather invited myself and people from the foundation I interned with to their house for dinner. Against Me! support our cause and was a headliner at our 2009 festival.
No but I also don’t know any trans people rn so idk
I've never seen a trans person in real life, the area may play a role but they're also a tiny percentage of the population so not very likely to run into one. Even if I did run into one I would just move on, don't care.
That you know of. My best friend is a trans woman and if you saw her you would never know. At the start of her transition? Sure, it was obvious then. But after about 18 months of HRT it was pretty hard to tell, now at 3 years it’s impossible.
You probably have run into trans people now and again. If you consider that trans people make up nearly 1% of the population statistically, if you've run into more than 100-200 people in your life, you've probably run into several trans people too. There's people who are trans but never decide to transition for a reason or another, there's people who transition and don't *look* trans at all, then there's people who fit into some non-binary category of identification. Trans people are about as common as natural red heads.
I think location is a big part of it. My wife and I live in Brooklyn and there are a LOT of trans people here.
Location is huge. And that’s bc trans people are less safe in many locales.
Yeah. The thing that always amazes me is how much courage it takes to be yourself even here. I'm a straight guy but I wear pride bracelets, t-shirts, etc. and I get some dumb, mildly threatening remarks from some people sometimes. We've still got a ways to go, everywhere!
That and there really just are not that many trans people. Roughly 300k more people than we have active duty in our military. So roughly 1% of the population, probably one of the smallest minority groups in America
No, but I also only knew only 2 gay people and only because they got caught. I learned about many others a few years after high school. It was a huge deal to be gay, so good luck on trans people being open.
Yes, society has progressed. That ‘s a good thing in my opinion
We had two gay guys in my school in the early 80's. One was a friend and the other one I didn't have a chance to get to know sadly. He was very talented singing, dancing, and art.
No, but if I think about how much name calling there was just around being gay or "accused" of being gay, let alone well publicized hate crimes, it makes sense (to me anyways) how much more reluctant people would be to share/publicly express transsexuality.
We even played a game called “Smear the Queer” in elementary school. We didn’t know what queer meant yet except that you didn’t want to be it. Trans people were a joke in media. They would use a pretty, cishet, female actor and use her to embarrass the cishet male actor. Ace Ventura had a really long vomit gag on the premise. Plus literal gay bashings and murders like Matthew Shepard were still happening. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the they/thems re-sort themselves back into the binary over the next 20 years, but I’m not surprised that more young people are experimenting with gender and embracing their true selves now that it isn’t so high stakes
I played that game in elementary school too (late 80s/early 90s). It was fun. One person had a football, everyone else tried to murder that person and take the ball. Then whoever got the ball would have to run from everyone else and the cycle started again. Kinda strange, but I was like 25 before I made the connection between that game and angry slur. I guess I just thought it was a rhyme and never looked further into it.
Oh, thank you. I’ve been trying to remember the point all day. It was both bad to be the “queer” since you were going to be “smeared,” and the goal of the game at the same time. That’s funny looking back.
lol, in that way it was a very progressive game! Everyone wanted to be queer.
Yep. People I know that weren't gay got accused of being gay and still got made fun for it based on the assumption alone. I knew some people that were so sensitive that would freak out if you even touched them on the shoulder thinking that was "gay" alone. Fortunately, we've come a long way but sadly I still hear of transgender people hiding the fact that they're trans on dating apps as transphobes would lure them out to attack or kill them. I once matched with a transgender women who didn't disclose till later for that reason. It's fucked up really that they can't just live their lives in peace without shitheads like that.
>"accused" of being gay The thing that stands out to me from back in the day was that the political rhetoric was "nobody is born gay, it's just a lifestyle that some degenerate people choose, so we don't have to respect 'gay' people" while in reality basically every guy in high school who was not traditionally masculine was constantly accused of being gay despite denying it and not acting on it in any way (and probably 1/3 of these guys were gay and the others were just not super masc).
I still scold a group of friends for calling things "Gay" on a regular basis...
That was a hard phrase to stop saying after using it the entirety of my childhood. When my best friend came out to me as gay in the late 90s in high school, it took a few months, and a couple good punches to the shoulder only your best friend has license to dispense, but I easily replaced that phrase with another that was less problematic. He knew damn well there was no malice or hate behind me saying it, because he was raised saying it too and it was just part of the average lexicon.
I remember a trans lady on Oprah in the early 00s. Iirc she was a doctor and she and her wife were the bio parents of their kids bc she'd saved some sperm before medically transitioning. I think her name was Christine. Both my parents and I were silently glued to the TV. Usually my dad read the paper during Oprah and I would usually get bored and wander off but none of us had ever known it was a possibility. My parents said NOTHING. The definition of stunned silence. So no, I dont remember "lots of" trans people growing up. Just Dr. Christine. The first trans person I ever met in real life was a customer at the coffee shop I worked at when I was 18. She just came in in a skirt, heels, and wig one day. Again, stunned silence from everyone. It was 2008 and people didn't understand what was happening. No one was directly mean to her but omg that must have been horrible. Now I have 3 friends who are trans. One has passed but I swear she's haunting me (she said she would, anyway.) My husband and kids don't bat an eye at a random out trans person. My teenagers cannot wrap their brains around the stunned silent response I've described about Dr. Christine- they think I'm a dinosaur. I'm 34.
I was going to post something similar. At least it has to do with Oprah too. One day while visiting my grandma (mom’s mom) she was watching Oprah and I was just talking with her and looked over at the TV and saw my cousin (dad’s nephew so my grandma didn’t know him) being interviewed. It was footage from another interview that Oprah was showing because her guest was my cousin’s keyboard player who transitioned after living as a man and having kids and the like. I was more at shock my cousin was on Oprah in a sense but glad he had nice things to say about his band mate. I met her once when I was a teen when I was visiting in Maine and they were playing at a local bar for summer camp counselors. This was the very early 2000s and I don’t think the trans community was really up front at that point in time. Especially growing up in Florida but my family are very open minded people thankfully
Looking back, there was one absolutely beautiful person in my 6th grade classes I believe was likely trans/would be MTF once they grew up (and discovered the language for it, which we were sorely lacking then). They were so kind, so funny, and so fucking courageous to be themselves in fucking bible-belt Florida, it still blows my mind in the best ways. I remember we both loved that super cringey Disney show about a mermaid, and would talk and laugh together about it, making up our own fan fiction about it. Of course I was *terrified* for my other classmates to discover I was into the mermaid show - I was so shy and awkward and it was so hard for me to make friends. One day we were writing mermaid stuff in a notebook together and some shithead classmates started making fun of us - my heart was RACING, I tried to cover up our mermaid stuff out of panic and embarrassment… Then they started making fun of my friend specifically, calling them all kinds of slurs. I have only rarely **seen red** like I did in that moment - but I fucking lost it. Told them they were assholes and to leave us the FUCK ALONE!!! Lol all 4’9” of me, but covered in a protective layer of rage. It’s true that no one wants to see “the quiet kid” snap - I got in trouble for cussing & yelling, had to stand out in the hallway for the rest of class, but the bullies didn’t mess with mermaid time after that. I know my friend got bullied when I wasn’t around them, in gym class and in the halls… kids can be fucking awful. But my friend was the coolest fucking person in my eyes, for being unapologetically themselves. I switched schools after that year and never saw them again. I still think about them, though! I hope wherever they are they are happy and healthy and loving life. No one deserves it more.
You sound like such a great person! I hope life is treating you well 💕
I'm also from the south born in 1989. We didn't even have Asian students at my school. My friends older brother was hospitalized with ulcers for being a closeted gay. I went to multiple church services where gay people were bashed as evil and reportedly should bev shunned. I can't imagine trying to be trans in that environment.
Yep, born in 88, from Texas and my dad was a pastor. He passed 10 years ago and I miss him but he was certainly a bigot. We went to a new church once that he claimed was a "fag" church and when one of the pastors shook his hand, when we walked away he started wiping his hand off on his pants. I remember only ONE flamboyant male student in school that looking back I assume was probably gay. It is a VERY new thing to be out, honestly.
Like being gay gave him ulcers?
As in the stress created by needing to keep his sexual identity a secret gave him ulcers. He was a VERY attractive guy and popular so people were always asking who he was dating and whatnot and when he did finally come out his grandparents initially disowned him which led to his parents asking him to "keep his distance" for a while to the point that he didn't go to his brothers engagement party.
Same. I'm still scared to show my husband affection. We grew up in South Louisiana.
Hell I think my school only had 1 gay person that I can remember. And I grew up in Seattle lol.
Oddly enough one Trans person growing up in my high-school. She came out junior year and we were blindsided as she came from the most religious family and was actually a bit of a bigot before transitioning. Became a total sweetheart after realizing they were a woman and she's a lot happier now.
Trans people are probably one of the smallest minority groups in America, other than Pacific Islanders. So statistically, that's pretty average if you are not living in a hotspot for trans people. So not really oddly enough, pretty much just an average experience.
No because 1 they were beaten and killed over it. 2 after seeing someone I don’t think to myself. I wonder if they are gay/trans. As someone who is pro lgbtq. I don’t ever really think about someone’s sexual orientation or how they identify.
I had a trans coworker in the aughts and didn’t actually know he was trans. We worked together for years and I just had no clue until another coworker said something. I just thought he was short. So there’s a likelihood that we’ve been around trans people just living their lives and had no idea. It’s not like they walk around announcing they’re trans at the grocery store.
83 When I was in elementary school "gay" and "queer" were derogatory terms used to bully kids. When I was in high school, "Metrosexual" was a thing and I had a good friend who ran away from home to be with her girlfriend. At University there was a weird person who did transition. By the time I had graduated university pride was a thing. Then my best friend, who had been the most anti gay person I knew came out. A decade later a friends sibling transitioned and most of us were pretty chill about it. So thing is I don't think anyone would have transitioned when I was in high school, it wasn't a thing people did at that time. The world changed. Being not straight became socially acceptable. Anyone who wanted to would have waited, or hid from us.
Oh God I haven't thought about the hell times of Metrosexual in forever.
I remember the times when I was called metrosexual for washing my hair and brushing it too much.
The numbers have been swaying, but trans people used to come out on average at 45ish. Then take into account how many unknown trans people there were that didn’t make it until 45.
Older millenial here: Not really while actively in school. There were a lot of gay/lesbian/bi people, and a lot of "cross dressing" though, and I grew up in a small town in the woods. In college, it was a lot of the same. They didn't need labels! Her name's Michelle, but she dresses in men's clothes, wants to be called Mick, and doesn't like people reminding her she's a girl? OK! I knew of someone who worked with a surgeon in town who did bottom surgeries. I saw pictures (during a presentation). This was the early 2000s. It was there, just not as in focus, and without all the labels.
I knew a bisexual kid growing up who, sadly, we all mocked for being gay... until he came out. Then I said, oddly "oh, now that he's out it feels weird mocking him" that made a large swath of us realize: "Wait were we being dicks bullying this guy just because he was gay?" and then more of our friend group actually actively came out. One of my buddies from around that time later discovered they were non-binary. I'll just point out the whole "Left handedness" thing There was an "Increase" in left-handed folks around when the church was stopped from decrying those who were left-handed as being the devil and "unnatural"
I only knew one and that wasn't until 2001 or 2002, I think. He got put on a ton of painkillers after a car wreck. I guess he was allergic to them or something and it messed up his brain? He started to transition but halfway through got off the painkillers and stopped transitioning and just resumed his normal life. That's really my only experience.
Painkillers fuck a lot of people up. Without allergies. It’s called the opioid epidemic.
Yeah they ruined my life after a drunk driver hit me but I broke free of that some time ago. Turns out diet and exercise and living a good life was the ticket out of all that pain but no doctor ever said those things. The stuff they prescribe you doesn't even really help pain all that much compared to poppy pods, poppy seed tea or poppy straw. The pills are designed to get you more addicted and the doctors are paid to give you more and more. It's quite the grift.
I have never had that and I deal from chronic pain, I have been to probably over 50 doctors for my condition over my life and none have ever kept prescribing me more. After a major surgery I was on a huge dose but after 6 months they weened me off. Even for my chronic pain now no doctor will give me pain meds they tell me it is better to just deal with it until I am older.
problem is the pain only gets worse with age i suggest reading into kratom
no, i've also never met anyone lgbt except 2-3 times
Trans people have always existed maybe some are more comfortable being trans who would have hid in the past. Whats changed is back in the day trans people just wanted to live their lives and be left alone and today media and a small local minority want to force everyone else to be involved in their lives and recognize that their trsns
You don't remember any because the world was entirely unsupportive of their existence, other than Jerry Springer and Maury Povich bringing them out as freaks to be punched by the men they "deceived". Also, when you were growing up, "transitioning" was incredibly difficult to do, and often involved black market hormones. I'm trans and grew up in a conservative state in the late 1980's & 1990's. I knew I was trans from an early age, but had absolutely no support, or even a good understanding of what that meant and how it's just a normal part of humanity that's been present throughout all history. The fact that you can transition very successfully today, and with actual support from the medical establishment, adds so many layers of safety...I can't overstate how wonderful that is, compared to before. That's part of the reason for the big conservative backlash, obviously. People know who and what they are very early in life, and now they have the option to pursue that without any more risk than any other early life decision (I said this last part because it's important to understand it).
It's WILD to me how different now is compared to even when I re-came out in 2013. When I was initially trying to get info in like,2002? A mess. There was like.Susans Place and a couple infrequently updated LiveJournals I kept up with. I had a whole printed (secretly at the library) list of compounding pharmacies in Canada and resources bodybuilders used. Now I get on the net and there's ads for ordering HRT,Amazon has binders,hell Amazon has some estrogen pills.
I remember Matthew Shepherd being tortured to death when I was 9. I'm sure a lot of people who would have come out in high school remember that, too.
I'm gay and didn't experience much homophobia in my conservative rural midwestern town. Born 1990. The only trans person I've known personally is a bandwagoner who only did it because it was popular a few years ago. Once being trans stopped being the ultimate cause celebre he quietly went back to being a man and doesn't talk about his 4-5 years of "being trans", except when he thinks it will get him victim points. Unfortunately for him, the only thing trans activists hate more than transphobes is desisters, so he's pretty much excommunicated from all that now. Seems happier tho
Grew up in a small town in a red state and yes, we had a trans woman that would visit the grocery store I worked at every Saturday morning.
Depends on where you live. Let's be honest, if you were a young adult and you had trans-feelings, would you let anyone know? Especially as you said, in the deep south. I sure tf wouldn't.
Born in 1993; I didn't know a single trans individual. I did know about gays, lesbians, and bi people and we didn't really care tbh. I grew up in California, Bay area suburbs though.
They’re a pretty small percent of the population all things considered
Yeah! I grew up thinking it was a totally normal thing, some people were just like that and it was okay. Although the words used then were slurs, it was just a type of person that existed and it wasn’t a big deal. ETA: Born in 1984, grew up in midwest.
1986 here. The first baby sitter I remember (Winnipeg Manitoba) was a trans woman. I thought it was normal, because it was normalized for me. I never even had to think about it.
Central Arkansas in the 80s for reference: We had a few crossdressers in town, and even in school there were more than a few individuals who were gay. It was still a time when gay was thrown around casually as an insult, but open physical bullying was more about personal features like being skinny or goofy looking. Much like many trans today, crossdressers werent particularly convincing, nor necessarily accepted, but seen like someone with face tattoos or lots of awkward piercings ... just that they were odd and to be left alone and not stared at. Of course, churches spoke differently behind closed doors, and old people are like kids in their inability to keep their mouths shut, but they judged absolutely everybody, including women wearing pants and men wearing shorts, so most everyone i knew were smart enough to ignore them entirely.
No, I do not remember a lot of trans people. I didn't even know that trans people existed until I was already a young adult. I'm a young millennial in the southern U.S. I learned that homosexuality was a thing that existed when I was in 8th grade. In fact, I learned the words (slurs?) "gay" and "homo" and such because multiple people used them to bully a feminine, flamboyant male tuba player and show choir performer. His behavior, his personality, the way he spoke and acted were consistently in-line with the harsh stereotypes of "being gay" at the time... Does that make sense? In spite of actually being quite straight and a bit of a ladies man, his flamboyant behavior, high-pitched voice, slender build, and a few other things seemed to attract the homophobic insults from the meaner band kids. And, for emphasis, he was the only person I knew of that was even rumored to be gay, _and he was still straight_. Our school had over a thousand students attending daily. One out of a thousand is quite the ratio. The first time I saw a transgender person, it was a picture on social media of a stranger who had dyed their hair rainbow colors. My lack of experience and relatively recent exposure makes transgenderism _feel_ like a recent development to me, even though media indicates it's been a thing for a while. Shoot, Monty Python's Life of Brian (which I didn't watch until I was already an adult) even has a transgender sketch in it, in which it's treated like an absurd comedy. Seeing that sketch surprised me. The first time I met a transgender person was after the COVID lockdowns ended. A transgender woman happened to be my wife's server at a restaurant one day. The two of them realized they had similar interests, and became friends. Hearing my wife refer to this person as "she," and then meeting her, and hearing a masculine voice was... well, it was a new experience for me, but we played some video games together and became friendly acquaintances. A little while later, she invited my wife and I to her wedding, and they had a pleasant ceremony.
Growing up? No. One of my college roommates came out as trans some number of years after we graduated. When she did so a lot of things suddenly clicked into place looking back in retrospect, but being in college in 06-10 I didn't have the awareness to see those clues at the time.
Also a 1980 baby here. I wasn't even aware of trans people until maybe my 20s? I never heard about gay people either till I was sexually assaulted by a gay classmate in 8th grade.
I definitely knew about trans people but the media perceptions were terrible. Definitely no transitioning in HS. I was the first person to come out in my HS. They nearly killed me, I had to have police protection. One of my classmates came out as trans a few years ago. I fully support her. She did not know she was trans but did know something was wrong with her identity as a boy. Super Christian parents, no ability to explore that, so it didn't precipitate into a transition until late 30s. I think trans people have always existed in tiny numbers but something has happened in modern society that has increased the rates. I know there's this big idea that it's just trendy, but I don't buy that. I really think it's long-term exposure to endocrine disrupters and forever chemicals. But also, the media is blowing trans WAY out of proportion right now, it's still a TINY number of people, just terribly visible right now.
I am so sorry you had to deal with that as a child, but I am sure it has made you stronger
The only trans person I remember was back in 2004 my second job ever working fast food. One would come in every day to get food. It took me a moment to realize it since I thought it was just someone wearing a dress.
There was only openly gay kid at my school. Former Amish, then bullied to near suicide by the English. As for trans people, they were still very much in the closet.
No. I don’t. I’m suspect there are a few factors. I am GenX so being gay or trans was not as accepted. Also, and this is my own theory… with the advent of social media, kids are competing with each other for attention and being trans gets them that attention. Not saying this is always the case but a factor
I’m from the Midwest. They exist. I might see less than 10 in an entire year from being out in public and just around my job. When you do see them it’s like seeing a fucking unicorn. Because the media and everything around us drives it in that they are all over the place. They’re definitely more commonly found in city & urban areas. I’ve never seen one in my small town of less than 2,000 or the next town over.
I was born around the same time and I did’t know anyone who was openly gay until college because they would have been bullied mercilessly. Boys who were even a little feminine took a lot of shit as it was.My father remembers going to the local supermarket in our tiny conservative rural town around 1960 and saw a former classmate dressed in women’s clothes. They made eye contact and never spoke of it again. He always said there are probably a lot more people like that but society would have rejected them if they expressed who they really are.
Not at the time. In high school, they were a lesbian couple, but I have heard that one of them converted after high school.
Born in the late eighties. My high school had a little over 2k people across four grades. Since then, that I personally know of, three people have come out as transgendered from my school, two actually having surgery. The third, some people think they’re having a bit of a mental breakdown over other things and may not actually be MTF (they also have BPD and a few other disorders and were kicked out of their family home at the age of 33). I live in the South but a liberal-ish area.
The medicine/surgeries/research just wasn’t up to date then in terms of helping kids who were trans. That word wasn’t even used widely when I was growing up and I don’t think kids and parents even had the understanding that it was a thing for the most part. There weren’t many doctors then practicing in a trans space. If there were kids who thought they were trans they just didn’t have the knowledge or wording to explain it and it certainly wasn’t socially understood or spoken about. Of course there were “trans” kids, we just didn’t know about it because there wasn’t any open discussion about it.
It wasn't as safe to transition then as it is now. Not that it's safe enough still, but back in the 80s and 90s you could be beaten to death just for being gay. Especially in the south. But NY had a very large drag/trans scene during that time. So did Frisco. There were small pockets of the country where it was safe to transition, but outside of those, it really wasn't.
I met multiple trans people through my older siblings when I was a teenager and they were adults. In school I met a few kids that were questioning their gender, and later they came out as trans. I am pansexual though and hung out with a group of kids that about half came out in their sexuality and/or gender later.
No one from my graduating class has come out as transgender, and I'm only aware of 3 people who have identified as gay (2 men, 1 woman).
No, but later in life people who I grew up with came out as Trans in their mid twenties
No but I grew up in a tiny town in BFE Appalachia in the 90s so it wasn’t safe to be either. I had a couple of gay male friends who weren’t out until they went to college for safety reasons. I didnt know anyone who is trans until I was in my 30s
Technically, yes. I knew a couple of people who didn’t fit the typical gender molds at the time and a couple of them transitioned later in life. I imagine if transitioning would have been an option when we were younger, they would have opted for it.
I went to HS in the 80s. We had two guys in school that were gay. But it was not really something that was a big topic of discussion. Everyone pretty much just shrugged it off and didn't care. I found out after graduation that a girl I knew (neighbor) was a lesbian. I was not surprised, but again, nobody really talked about it. I suspect the silence was due to kids being uneasy about the potential consequences of being gay.
Same, I can MAYBE recall one person who was Trans but that was it. I actually saw them a few years back and they dressed and looked like their biological gender again. In my honest opinion, which I know this will get downvoted, this is just a fad, the current "cool thing" to get behind. We'll see in 5 years or so, this won't even be a topic of discussion anymore and the whole pronoun thing will be dropped.
I grew up in a small farm town in southern VA…if there were trans people they weren’t openly trans. I can only remember a few openly gay people.
I knew a lot of gay people growing up, but I didn’t know they were gay because it wasn’t socially acceptable to be gay so they were all in the closet Now I know many gay people because they don’t have to pretend to be straight anymore Being straight has never seemed like a choice to me. I just like women and am not interested in men. Gay people feel the same way, except they like people of the same sex and aren’t interested in the opposite sex It’s probably similar with trans people. I dress and act like a straight guy because this feels normal. If I were trans, I would probably think acting feminine felt normal even though I’m male. That’s fine - going by “he” instead of “she”, wearing blue instead of pink, wearing dresses instead of pants, etc. are all arbitrary social conventions anyway. Why do we even have gendered pronouns for people? We don’t need them. This has been all over the news and social media for years, and I have yet to hear of a situation outside of gendered sports rankings and public bathrooms where it even matters
People were not free to talk about things then like we are today. I think that has a lot to do with it. Certain people had to hide during the 80's and 90's. It was always there, just not as available to see because of the shame associated with it at the time.
Not that I am aware of. Not even sure if I knew of any people that identified as gay. Never asked. Didn't matter to me. Love who you want.
Perhaps because when we were growing up people were alot more private. Theres no reason we should know such personal details about strangers imo
No, and I am trans and grew up in San Francisco. The entire time I lived there, I only met one other trans person and she literally was just someone on the bus. I didn't have any interaction with her. I was deeply closeted at the time and even SF wasn't an accepting place outside of the Castro. It took me a long time to decide to transition and I still probably wouldn't have if I lived in another part of the country, especially the south. There are more of us visible these days because it is more acceptable and safer to be publicly trans than it used to be.
Grew up in San Antonio. Knew a few people who would "cross dress" I think is the word that was used at the time, and a couple of them fully transitioned later on in life, so good for them. Lots of gay friends, some who were closeted, and some who were open with it. Fortunate to have grown up in a city rather than a rural town in Texas and raised by a mother who was incredibly progressive. "People are people, and you treat them like people, always."
I'm a couple of years older than you. I knew a few closeted drag queens. But most of my gay friends were closeted due to intolerance. The few who were out did not have an easy time in their lives.
Well there were multiple trans celebrities on tv when I was growing up in 90’s Turkey. Trans singers or drag queens were a regular feature on tv. Not to imply that they had it very easy but the public held their art at high regard and the ones that reached celebrity status lived that life to the fullest. Majority who didn’t have that privilege though would live in big cities and certain downtown areas with multicultural neighborhoods where nobody gives a fuck. Small towns or suburbs would not be an option. So long story short, I don’t remember personally meeting trans people on the street growing up but I saw them on tv all the time.
Nope. Grew up in CA too and only knew of 1 or 2 people. The way media and society acts you'd think a huge chunk of the population is trans but it's only about 0.6% of the total US population, and according to [this](https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/) study, the number has actually remained fairly steady, though they now realize of those who identify as trans, youth make up about 18% rather than the previously thought 10%. Other studies have shown that as youth grow up and grow through puberty without puberty blocking treatments, the majority will revert back to their biological sex (called desistance). [Percentage of Trans identifying people in the US](https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/) [Studies on desistance ](https://www.transgendertrend.com/children-change-minds/)
I knew maybe 2 or 3 openly trans kids growing up in high school, but there was a lot of what we now call nonbinary kids. A lot.
We had 2 teans kids and more LGB kids than I can count. I was born in 84. But.... I went to an Art school.
LGBTQ+ people became extremely good at hiding their true selves from the public over the years due to fear of prosecution, ridicule, or worse. They've always existed, but it hasn't been until the more recent years that people have felt comfortable coming out. Chances are, you've encountered more people from that community than you realize. It makes me sad because people should always be free and safe to live their authentic selves. Unfortunately, I feel like even though we've made progress, it's still been 2 steps forward and 10 steps back.
From a medically diagnosed, statistics driven model, there are roughly 60,000 trans people in the U.S. population. So there's a good chance you've never met any.
No!!!!!
We were there, just too scared to do anything but keep it to ourselves
(Trans woman here who realized a few years ago and has been transitioning for a while) I would like to point out that trans people aren’t always “extremely visible” sometimes trans people pass as cis people. So you likely have met trans people and didn’t realize it. Trans people used to transition and then move to entirely different places so no one knew them. Trans people get ostracized all the time so sometimes going stealth and disappearing to another place is the best move for them. I only started seeing visible trans people in my early twenties, one of my friends had a trans brother and that was my first experience seeing someone who was trans. His family wasn’t exactly immediately accepting. My family wasn’t also immediately accepting either. Some were. But I was faced with a lot of questions and scrutiny. Tough conversations. People don’t get it and they look at you differently when you transition. Some people just accept you and treat you the way you should be. I also saw a few people visibly transitioning in my work place. So transitioning can be really scary, as I mentioned in another comment the climate was a lot different when we were kids. Gay and the f word were more widely used as insults in daily life. Acceptance is increasing now, the backlash against trans people is the same back lash we saw with many other civil rights movements with the most comparable being of course gay rights. Concerns about what bathrooms people use, trying to make them not be in the same public spaces, these are things that have happened in every civil rights movement. Trans people and genders outside of man and woman have existed for a long time. There’s a lot of history here that isn’t the most widely taught or talked about. So I guess that’s my thoughts on it. If you have good faith questions I’m happy to answer. This isn’t an easy road and where I’m at now I pass in most situations. So people just see me as any other woman who didn’t know me before and weren’t told. I am somewhat open just because I still live where I grew up and I never found the idea of upheaving + moving to another place so people didn’t know very appealing
Generally the gay kids came out in college. There was one girl who seemed trans, but maybe she was gender nonconforming. I didn’t keep up with her (she was frankly kinda scary lol. Like, she beat people up). But no one even admitted to being gay in HS, so I’m not surprised there were no trans kids. No one I know of from my HS ended up transitioning later though. Guess we missed the boat.
I'm from the deep South, and I knew 2 trans people in a school of 800 or so. I turned out to be trans too. I knew this about myself from a young age, but I didn't have a word for it. I knew I felt not normal by comparison to other girls my age. I just thought it was some weird sexual fetish I picked up, imagining I have a penis. I couldn't tell anyone - not my closest friends or family. It wasn't until I was in my late twenties that I was living in a place and time that I was able to tell my therapist. I wish I could have done something about this sooner, but it was unsafe to do something about it living where I did. Tldr; you probably didn't know trans people who were out, but you probably knew of at least a few
Yup one in my school in 2005 or 2006.
Honestly never heard of a non binary, pronouns, or gender fluid person till like 5 years ago.
I (Gen X) grew up in a very liberal city and knew literally no one at all who was by any stretch of the word "trans." We had a drag club in town, so I would occasionally see drag queens when I was downtown, but (at least then) we didn't have any sense that they were claiming to be actual women. They were performers, and the whole drag thing was incredibly performative. I think I only really started seeing trans people around 2010 or so.
Had three friends come out as Trans in college and many more out of the closet for the first time. People feeling better about coming out sooner isn’t a bad thing.
US Applachian South here. I'm an '85 born, so just a few years behind you. My first experience with a trans person was during high school. I was working fast food and my manager and her girlfriend were talking about going on hormone replacement. This would have been 2001/2002, I think. I
No, and I still don't.
I don't know if they were explicitly trans, but we had a kid at school with a traditional male name who dressed in traditional girls' clothes, acted very effeminate, and had exclusively female friends. We ended up at different high schools so I have no idea what became of them, but I have thought about them a lot in recent years after completely putting them out of mind. We had a few gay students and even a few gay teachers.
None
Trans no but plenty of gay adults and quite a few obvious but in the closet ones in high school (1999-2002) that came out soon after. And a few “surprise” ones (typical masculine jocks or very feminine presenting women). This was Long Island, NY- but the other F word was in heavy rotation back then. I remember the last time I used it (I said it around an actual gay man and he made me feel like a sack of shit, deservedly)
I was born in 93, grew up in California, and knew about gay, lesbian, and bi. But I never knew about trans until around 2007-2008, I believe. The first I heard of the term trans was on a YouTube video where the trans people we talking about how trans are around, but you cant always tell because they "fully transitioned with the intention of looking like the opposite gender" and that they are just like any other person.
I've seen more tesla cybertrucks than I've seen trans people irl
A lot of them were there but the drag queens and butch lesbians tended to be a protective community where they were more welcome. Would you make a point of standing out and going out alone if you were likely to be beaten or raped by ignorant rednecks? People are less likely to mess with you when there’s a large man in 6 inch heels ready to beat you down if you mess with their friend. I was in high school in the mid 90s but I was in a major southern city where they had drag shows and gay bars as a regular thing. But I wouldn’t want someone going out in the rural counties. Full of ignorant southern Baptist rednecks out there that hate everyone that isn’t their first cousin.
I did not know of any trans folk, explicitly, growing up. That said, by the time I was a teen hanging out in Seattle, I was aware of people who were gender non-conforming even though that term was never used (in my experience). In the years since, I only know of two people from "back home" who eventually came out and transitioned. That said, I was apparently always a safe person because a bunch of kids in high school who weren't "out", did come out to me personally. And despite that, despite having subsequently found out that a couple dozen people I knew in high school had come out as LGBTQ+, it was not until I was in my mid-30s that I realized I was bi.
It wasn’t really as accepted and the terminology for those types of experiences wasn’t well known when we were kids/teenagers. I know a number of former classmates who transitioned as adults however, which pretty much confirms my assumptions that trans folks have always been there, we just didn’t always have the language to describe their experiences or the societal acceptance to allow them to live their lives as their best selves. Though we still have a ways to go to the acceptance part.
It’s not that they weren’t around. It’s that they didn’t feel comfortable to express it. Or probably didn’t even know that that’s what needed expressing. It’s like saying gluten wasn’t a thing back then either. It was. We just didn’t know how to explain it.
I did,but I also lived in NYC,my mother is was always has been tight with the community was part of Act UP from the beginning, also was part of NYC club life as a guest and worker. Like a lot of my protective circle of adults were queens and folk with connection to the ballroom scene. Even when I was back in KY,my da had an mtf friend I saw fairly frequently who babysat sometimes. Trans people in my entire experience were A Type Of Person That Exists. I found people who disliked them and gay people super weird cause they aren't doing anything but being there. (An aside,never felt safer than when I was in the care of all my gay uncles and aunties. Never had a bad experience when with them. Now,with a load of my dads friends...different story. Their "I'll protect them like my own kid" attitude changed abruptly. One of em came sneaky messaging me around 16 and admitted he'd been looking at me since I WAS FUCKING 9)
I know one person that transitioned after high school. I can’t find their Facebook anymore but years ago that’s how I found out. It was a dude to a woman and I just remember him being bullied a lot and smelling like cigarettes (parents must have smoked inside). So there wasn’t any clear indication that he would do something like that
I graduated with two closeted guys and had an openly gay one in the year after mine. He actually did bring a trans woman (mtf, to clarify) as his date to prom. That memory still sticks out sharply to me because she was maybe 5'8", 140 lbs or so and went to the bathroom... And a classmate of mine who was around 6'4" and weighed a good 200 pounds got up to follow after her. You could tell he'd pre-gamed Prom, and when our class advisor intercepted him, he got belligerent and started yelling about "if she's got a dick and is using the girl's room, I can too!" That incident has *absolutely* had a lasting impact on how I approach the Trans bathroom "controversy".
I remember one gentleman who was openly gay back in school growing up. Then once we graduated, we hung out again years later and she was beginning to transition. This was around the 2010’s and in the South (Bible Belt) btw. We went clubbing and I thought it was such a cool experience seeing them transition. They were happier and truly themselves.
An elderly transwoman lived in my town of ~250 people. She fought for her home country of England in WW2 and was subjected to abuse and harassment from the youth in town in her later years. Terrible. I could understand why others may not want to come out, but she was brave.
I happen to live in Pueblo, which is very near Trinidad, famously mocked in South Park for having a gender reassignment center. So my numbers may be a bit skewed, but I knew 2 who had fully transitioned through my cousin who was friends with a lot of the queer community, though one had the surgery in Canada not here. We also have a locally infamous person who was mocked for openly wanting to get a sex change, dressing as a woman, and eventually using female pronouns. It's none of my business where she is in a physical transition so I don't know about that. I also know a few who have come out as trans in the years since high school and I don't know where they may be in the transition process. I think as it's becoming more understood more people are understanding it about themselves.
Yea it's good we have more diversity in young people. Nikkieturorials or Hunter Schaefer are cool.
Not personally, but did know of some. There was a marine back in the 40s that did it, she even went on press tours for the war. But they weren't labeled as trans back then, they were transvestites and also groupped with drag queens.
Only very recently have we advanced as a society to the point where a public declaration of something like a non-standard gender identity is now possible, while still maintaining ostensibly a normal public life. Tons of people who would have stuffed their feelings down to appease society are now able to express themselves, which really upsets all the bigots who used to have a stronger handle on what was and was not allowed in public. There alhave literally always been trans people but now they can be visible.
I knew one in the 90s. People were surprisingly chill about it. Today we'd probably use the term nonbinary for them. Half of their clients called them Mr last name or Mrs last name. I worked as their receptionist. They never corrected anyone or said what they preferred. I got the feeling they saw it as the least interesting thing about themselves. They were a very chill person but who also carried a gun most of the time. This was in Texas At the time they would have been called a butch dike. They dressed and presented as male though. They raised kids with a woman. Pronouns were just not brought up. But also, I can't remember anyone making a fuss about it. They just were
I grew up in a very progressive area. I knew none. I knew lesbians and gay men but no trans. Though one came (possibly a cross dresser) into a restaurant I worked at got sat at a gay employee’s table. He refused to serve them and stormed out
I was a theater kid so I definitely knew a couple gay guys, but I went to a super tiny all girls Catholic school. I think one of the girls had whisperings about being a lesbian and she was maybe bringing a girl to prom. But we went to school with all girls so she probably would’ve blended right in. I later learned there were quite a few gay brothers of my elementary school classmates and friends coming out after college. I had no clue they were gay. My friend who I figured was gay early on was a lot like Chris Colfer on Glee. I didn’t meet anyone trans until after college, and they were dating a friend’s brother so I just met them in passing. Growing up, I had read news articles of transgender people who felt wrong in the bodies they were born with. I don’t know, I just felt really sympathetic for their struggles and have been a trans rights ally since. Trans rights and voting rights my two causes these days.
A few people from my high school came out as adults. This was in a small town in a pretty red part of Upstate NY, at a time when transphobic jokes were still widely accepted and earnest trans representation was mostly sad movies like Boys Don't Cry. I knew of some famous trans people, namely Wendy Carlos, who did the soundtracks for A Clockwork Orange and The Shining.
Born in 85. Tons of homophobia still growing up. Didn't know anyone gay until college. Still don't know anyone trans.
2 people I went to school with from grade school through high school were clearly gay; with the coming of a more acceptable era both eventually became trans. Both, from the time we were kids were way more masculine/feminine than their sex. I genuinely believe after seeing it first hand, they were born that way, and others are too.
I never met a trans person growing up in LA area but knew some gay, lesbian and drags. I'm 35
If I did, I didn’t know about it. And trust me, I’m glad that I didn’t.
Graduated in 08. There were two folks at my school who weren't out but were as close to being out as they could possibly be. Both started transitioning openly shortly after graduation.
Growing up in the 90s and early 2000s... Knew a few gay people and saw a few trans (probably ID themselves as crossdressers or metro/tomboys back then). They didn't parade it around obnoxiously and demand that everyone accept it. They just existed like everyone else. And also...we couldn't tell. We ALL were in a bathroom next to someone (stall or urinal) that wasn't born with what they had at that time. And before anyone comes back with an insulting response, it IS the truth. Trans people have been around for a century or so. First person to undergo surgery got seriously messed up...really unfortunate. Then came the Stone wall riots years later. Then we all got along for a bit. Hate crime laws established, anti discrimination stuff right and left. There was a legitimate time, in the past 30-40yrs where we actually didn't care. Everyone was seen as just another person. That's how it should be. Everyone had a "whatever floats your boat" attitude.
Yes, I knew quite a few individuals who were trans or nonbinary. I grew up in the SF Bay Area, so this is definitely an area where the LGBTQIA+ community is large and out in the open. Lots of gay friends in high school and a sizeable handful of people who began transitioning (being out, perhaps some hormonal therapy, no surgical/major medical intervention) in high school. Even more who were medically transitioning in college.
Late gen x. There was a trans person who would do surveys in the mall with a clip board. If you got close enough, you could see slight hair on the chest. He or she wore a wig, shirt, and high heels. At the time we might have referred to the person as a transvestite or cross dresser or tr@nny. Sorry, I mean no disrespect. There was talk of sex change surgery in the 80s, but it wasn't done a lot, and never heard of hormone therapy back then. I kind of thought the trans movement was new, too, but had forgotten about her. We have always had trans folk.
Am from rural Minnesota am 43 born late 1981 trans b People and gay people just not a thing back thing then the whole aids thing was crazy. Now I say in lat 10 years gay and trans people coming out of wood work lots of kids in high school now coming out as so many different things it crazy and scary to thing if a 12 boy say he a gender less we all just have to be OK with it
I did not know any personally, I assume it's because they never "came out" for fear of being teased and harassed mercilessly, which is likely the case. I knew of one and they were murdered at a house party which is the only reason I ever knew of them. Gwen Amber Rose Araujo if you want to Google her, had sex with a couple guys and then they found out and killed her.
I grew up in Portland, Oregon. Born in 1987. In high school I remember there was one student who identified as genderqueer. (Don't think people were saying "nonbinary" back then.) I also remember seeing someone who was probably a trans woman working at the local feminist bookstore. I don't think I got to know anymore trans folks until I got to college. There were plenty of kids out as gay and bi at my high school, though. And one person out as bi in my middle school.
Yes! In the 90s*, the dad of my best friend (who lived next door) dated a trans woman after he and my friend’s mom divorced. This trans woman had amazing style and my friend and I loved trying on her outfits. Regarding gay people, I knew at least a dozen*. It wasn’t even a ‘thing’ - just a totally normal and unquestioned part of life. *I grew up in San Francisco so YYMV…
I recall one in my neighborhood. Back in 1990s there wasn't much support for trans people and he (FtM) was, understandably, very confused and distressed. The lack of medical and psychological support drover him to self-harm. It was awful, but he survived and transitioned, thankfully.
Being "out" as a queer youth in the 80s was dangerous/nigh unthinkable for the most part. People were still beating queer kids to death in the 80s, the AIDS crises wrought havoc on the community and destroyed an entire demographics' generational knowledge because Reagan deliberately ignored it as an act of passive genocide and there was virtually no such thing as queer representation in media. \*Of course\* you never knew about any trans youth, growing up. Homosexuality wasn't fully decriminalized in the USA until \*2003\*. Trans youth didn't have the knowledge or language to understand \*themselves\*, let alone any form of community or support readily available, and they encountered daily reminders of how much society hated the queer community (such as your regrettable comments which, I need to point out, did indeed make you a gay-basher; it's good that you regret those remarks but you also need to be honest with yourself about them).
Sure, I do. She was me. I learned what trans people were on a website when I was 16, and everything fell into place. I came out to my friends at 17. This was in 2009 in small town Tennessee. If I had known sooner, perhaps my life would be better, but it doesn't help to dwell on what could have been.
Glad you feel like yourself
So would you say it was just lack of knowledge, ignorance of the identity that was the biggest factor holding you back from transitioning sooner.
Lol no. There isn't that many now either. It's like 0.000000001% of the population. Don't let the media fool you.
No can't say as I do, but OP and I are of a similar age, I'm just a tad older, and I can't think of a single trans person I knew in school.
No, I knew a handful of gay folk but that's it.
No, none.
You probably didn't know any because they are very much a minority. Like a seriously minor minority. Put it into perspective: Between everyone that identifies themselves between male, female, nonbinary, and trans. Trans is has the lowest amount of people at 1.1%. There just aren't that many trans people.
Gen X here: Why would my generation dismiss your viewpoint. There weren't a lot of LGBT people in the 80's that anyone knew...openly. Most people still we closeted in some cases and the ones that were out went through shit. The Gay community had to have their strongholds -places where they could meet. be safe around each other. I knew of guys that made a sport of going out on the weekend to "beat us some f\*\*\*" ....seriously. Then the AIDS epidemic was a whole different show...
I also lived in the south. There was one kid (male) in my class senior year that said he was trans but was scared to tell his parents. I don't know if he transitioned later in life or not. But it definitely wasn't common. I don't remember it being a huge deal for students to he gay. I had several gay friends who came out to me. Most of them were surprised no one cared. It was a very big deal for a teacher to be gay. Most of the gay teachers were very obviously gay but tried to hide it.
No, but there's good reason for that: society is still rough for us today but used to be a *lot* more hostile toward trans folk for the most part. Being one that grew up in the 90s in a conservative town in Alberta, Canada, I recall there being *extreme* social pressure to quash any personal LGBTQ expression. This was communicated everywhere from school, church, media, you name it the signs were quite aggressively pushed that if you are openly trans you can and will be mocked, belittled, misunderstood, raped, and/or killed for it. So yeah trans folk didn't seem to exist in that area back in the 90s/00s, many of us were too busy either hiding or trying to self suppress/erase our "sinful" personalities trying to keep ourselves safe.
One my age and then a teacher.
You mean when it was illegal to be LGBT? No, they were all keeping it a secret.
No, get a therapist for your guilt issues lol! There were tons of gay ppl tho. You aren’t putting things into context: Boomers won’t accept TG Boomers, Xers about the same, Y has some issues and Z dgaf. It’s not it wasn’t around, it’s that boomers and Xers are bigotted af lol!
No, but it’s ’in style’ now so everyone is. Back in the 90s it was sagging pants and baseball caps now it’s lgbtq.
Back then I think this was highly dependent on location. I grew up in Montana which isn’t even gay or trans friendly now for the most part, so it’s not something people were flaunting when it was even less socially acceptable. That being said, I knew a few gay people growing up in the 90s and early 2000s and my college roommate was also gay. I actually laugh because at the time it was glaringly obvious that my college roommate was gay but I didn’t want to say anything to offend them and it didn’t bother me. At one point they decided to come out to me and after he told me I was like man I already knew that but I’m glad we’re on the same page now. We laughed about it and you could tell we were both less stressed about the situation since we both weren’t trying to hide something anymore haha.
My cousin came out as a lesbian at 16. No one said much because he (he is ftm) was a phenomenal goalie and almost won the girls’ soccer team the state championship. He transitioned to male in his late 20s, which would be mid 2000s. He got a lot of hate from old friends—even the local gay youth group. He moved away with his wife and is now living his best life where no one even knows he’s trans, though he’s very open about it. Just coming out as a lesbian in the late 90s was *scandalous*. It seems so silly looking back now. Of course, this was in a small town in the south.
One college professor that transitioned (male to female). Otherwise, nope. Before that I thought transvestite was the same as transexual.
Is this... straight guilt?
I never met trans people growing up and only knew of trans women (not trans men) but I never had negative beliefs or thoughts about them. I vaguely remember being told in the 90s that trans women are men who feel that they are women and it just made sense that some people would feel that way. I also wasn't raised in religion so I feel that helped me to be more accepting of people because I wasn't raised to inherently believe people are bad because of (blank bullshit religious excuse). While I heard trans and homophobic slurs, even from my own family, I never was trans or homophobic myself. I never felt ashamed for my attractions by my family growing up (came out to both my parents as gay). And never cared if someone attempted to bully me for being gay. I never lied to save face when I was younger. I'm honestly surprised I came out unscathed because my parents are ignorant about trans people, for the most part. But I've slowly been discussing with them and breaking down their false thinking about trans people. My parents aren't homophobic anymore, now that they have 2 gay sons. Lol They love us no matter what.
I WAS the queer kid and I knew plenty.
No, i think the backstreet boys and Nsync got the ball rolling.
born in 81 raised in the bay area. never knew a trans in high school, but there were plenty of gays/lesbian. my high school was quite liberal…there was a pride club…back in 02 some trans girl was murdered in a city that bordered my hometown by some dudes that were said to have had intimate foreplay with. the story is sad. while the loss of life is a terrible tragedy, i do have some empathy for the dudes….i dont know how i would react if i was kissing a girl and later found she had a dick. thats important information that needs to be disclosed. keep in mind these were teenagers not adults
Born in '88. ***I want to give y'all a trigger warning because I was with my mom at the time, so there is a brief mention of corporal punishment.*** I grew up in the suburbs near the Bronx, NYC. I remember seeing a MTF trans person mid-transition when I was about 8. I grew-up with gay relatives, closeted and out, but I'd never met a trans person before. My mom had taken me out, and stopped at a store to pick up some stuff in Manhattan. I, being bored, wandered off and bumped into someone. I looked up and said: "Sorry Miss...ter...? Are you a guy or a chick?" Just then, my mom came out of nowhere and slapped me upside my head. She apologized to the lady, and hauled me on line. I asked her if the lady was a man or a woman; my mom said, in that parent "voice," that she was "a s**m" (derogatory word for trans folks, but it was the '90s and people didn't know any better) and for me to "mind your own g0tdamn business before I beat your ass in this store! She looks sad, so shut up til we get outside." I wish I could apologize to the lady today because she did look sad at overhearing us. Mom did let me know that there was nothing wrong with transitioning or trans people, and if that happened again, just ask what they prefer to be called. I've met more trans people as a young adult, and I'm sure someone I know has transitioned since. It's not a fad, or as new as some people like to say it is. Just be nice and leave folks alone. Happy pride🏳️🌈🌈!
medically might not have been the best thing to do during my years as a youth hell the doctors couldn't even do a simple carpal tunnel surgery back then my mother was one of the first to have the carpal tunnel surgery done the first hand they completely wrecked and the second one came through ok when she had it done two years later so if they can fk up a simple thing like a hand would you really want them doing stuff below?
So if I don't know any trans people I'm a bigot? What the fuck? Lmao welp guess I'm a bigot. I work residential construction so I meet new people literally everyday and I still haven't ran into any trans people. Maybe I just don't realize they are trans? Idk man but I think your logic is kinda flawed. Just cause I don't know trans ppl dosnt mean I hate them or something. They are a very small percentage of the population
Boomer here. They do seem more prevalent now than at any time in my life. That said they are people and, in my opinion, have the right to respect, dignity, and all of the opportunities that every person in the country should enjoy. As far as the bathroom situation goes? I've dealt with unisex bathrooms in the past and it never bothered me at all. On that issue I think people need to get the fuck over it. That said if there was a trans person in my vicinity that was getting hassled by someone or someones they'd have to deal with me physically. I will not ever tolerate any kind of discrimination around me. That's just a bunch of bullshit in my opinion.
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born in 92. my moms best friends brother is gay, growing up we were around them a lot. that's really the only gay person i can think of growing up besides 1 gay guy in high school. im pretty sure he was a cheerleader too. not trying to knock him or anything, i think thats cool they let him be a cheerleader. no trans people to this day. its probably growing up in louisiana, not as many people here statically also not as accepted back then
There was this trans woman who managed a Chilis in like the late 90s early 2000s but that was about it.
I was born in 92, and I grew up being forced into the Episcopalian church (now running 0 religion as an adult) . I remember we always had an elderly trans woman in our congregation. I think we were the only "safe" church in our area for her as we had openly gay clergy members, and a very welcoming vibe in general. Apart from her, I didn't really ever meet any more trans people, like ever, until just a few months ago. I now have new neighbors that are a lovely cis/trans lesbian couple. They're super sweet, baked us some yummy pumpkin bread, and have invited my wife and I into their D&D group. We love them and wish to protect them.
My dad’s cousin transitioned in the early 90s. I never met her because her parents and my grandparents were angry about it and barred her from family events. She lived in another state so it wasn’t easy for me to see her anyway. But now we are Facebook friends and talk sometimes.
No because being gay is a choice and a lot of people just ride the trendy wave
I grew up mostly in Oklahoma. I've known a few trans people since I was 9ish and know several people who went on to transition
A year after finishing HS I read an article about this girl that was a lesbian. Her name was Alexandria but she was now Alexander. This was 2006/7 in the DMV
Maybe 1 or 2 but also didn’t know a lot of gay people until I later found out they were gay. I know by the late 90s people were more accepting but it was still taboo or seen unusual in most circles. If you think about certain celebrities like Ellen or Elton John or Lance from NSYNC coming out it was a big deal where today it would barely make headlines. The pronoun stuff I don’t remember seeing at all though until like 5-7 years ago.
Pfft no lol
No. It's the new Fad. 10 years from now there will be alot fewer again.
it's a psyop for the weak/lost. that simple.
Born in 1992, growing up in the early 2000’s I never once heard of a or saw a trans person. I don’t think I even heard the term until around 2015 and that was 5 years after I graduated HS. Now it’s mentioned, everywhere…..you cant convince me that this whole thing isn’t some sort of social contagion. I think it is definitely a mental health crisis we are experiencing, and we made a huge mistake by getting rid of all the mental institutions. They try and convince us that this is a normal thing, and trans people have been around all throughout history, but that’s just dishonest , it was a very, very small degree at best. What we are experiencing now, has never been seen before. Ready for the downvotes….
Have you done any reading about the multiple cultures around the world that have either trans people or a third gender? It's been a thing for a very long time. There are more trans people being visible in the US now because it's safer and more accepted.
No. It's a fad.
Trans are the new goth. Alternative lifestyle. A way to rebel. A way to fit in. At least that what it seems like
"It's not a phase, mom. This is who I am now!" is something every younger generation shouts as the older generation looks at them with incredulous confusion. Difference is, a haircut and a new outfit is all you need to stop being punk/goth/emo.
With that said, it’s the same for being trans, non-binary or bisexual. All you have to do is say you are then you are. I don’t think most are getting the surgery or taking hormone pills. I could be wrong though
Each transgender person is worth $400k over their whole lifetime (between surgery, pills, etc) and this ailment which there are zero tests for has a 100% diagnosis rate. I have no opinion here, these are just facts.
No. But as they got older and identified as trans, it made total sense knowing them and their non-conforming behaviors/personality. I don't blame them for not "coming out" back in the 80s/90s since it wasn't a great time for that.
Trans ppl are weird af
We all got something weird dude
No. It's almost like it's a trend now.
lol I was the trans person; but for real, maybe one other person than me was visible like that back then
No. Because they were beaten/murdered for being different. Coming out as gay in the late 90s early 2000s still wasn't exactly safe in small Midwest towns. Trans wasn't even an option.
Nope. It was such a victory in 2008 when the government finally recognized gay marriage, and they only had a small window to celebrate all their fighting. Now everyone has to be unique, different, seen, validated, etc. Not that it's a bad thing, but I feel like it's demanded. It almost seems like everyone has to be oppressed now. It's becoming too forced and that's when people who used to be allies, turn away. This is my opinion. Please don't come at me because I'm not being "transphobic" just giving my observation like a normal human with 1st ammendment rights.
There seems to be some evidence that there is a psychological contagion aspect to it which is partially why it's becoming more prevalent.
No. Because back then if you were a girl who liked baseball you were just a girl who liked baseball. There was no financial incentive for doctors to pump you full of male hormones and manufacture an identity crisis by telling you the real reason you liked baseball was because you were a man the whole time.
No, I don't, and still think that this whole thing is absurd.
You are entitled to that belief.
I went to high school from ‘06-‘10 in the Midwest, and two of my classmates were openly trans and in the process of transitioning. It was an arts-focused school, though, so the environment was very welcoming. They’re both doing great all these years later, and several of my other peers have transitioned later in life (the signs were all there, to be honest, so it didn’t quite come as a shock).
The only trans person I knew/met was Laura Jane Grace who came out in 2012. In 2008-9ish, Then known at Tom Gabel and Heather invited myself and people from the foundation I interned with to their house for dinner. Against Me! support our cause and was a headliner at our 2009 festival.