My name is Huld, my pronouns are They/ Them (Mitt pronomen i Norge er Hen) and I am Trans and non-binary. I specifically identify as “genderqueer”. I am on the waiting list for the gender identity clinic in Edinburgh, hoping for hormone therapy.
I’m not a trans woman, and not that it matters to anyone but myself and my sexual partners: I don’t plan to have surgeries to medically transition further. I am non-binary.
Even though I have only identified as non-binary/ genderqueer for about three years, I didn’t spend 34 years being a man.
I was raised as a boy and lived as a man. I was cultured Male based on my Assigned Gender. It wasn’t until I gained the vocabulary and the knowledge of gender outside the binary that I was able to put my past and present into context and understand I wasn’t just bad at being a man or “unusual”, I was simply… not a man. And I never have been.
When I was born I had a penis, so the doctor and nurses and everyone else said “it’s a boooooy!” But I wasn’t, that is just how people understand gender in a binary world where trans experiences are not understood or considered. Chromosomes are also not as simple as XY/ XX and don’t have any bearing on gender identity anyway.
CW: DISCUSSION OF TRANSPHOBIA AND HARM TO TRANS PEOPLE BELOW
I tell you all this to create a little bit of visibility of my own experience. Mine is just one story. And I’m one of the lucky ones. I get to live relatively free from the fear of violence (except when I need to go to the toilet in a public place and I’m dressed up, of course. Yay.) and most people in my life have tried to be supportive. Many trans people end up homeless and/ or dead. Many have bodies full of scars due to bodily harm caused either by abuse from others or self harm.
Suicide rates for trans teens are higher than any other part of the population. NOT because being trans is terrible, but because we still live in a society that vilifies trans people (especially trans women) and tries to erase us. Anti-trans people would have you believe trans women are “trans identifying men” who really just want access to cis women to rape. They would also have you believe trans men are just butch lesbians who’ve been bullied into transitioning by “trans lobbies”. They would have you believe that “trans ideology” (there is no such thing) wants to erase cis women. They would have you believe “cis” is a slur, even though it simply means you identify with the gender you were assigned at birth. They are wrong.
I am trans. And I am visible. And I am a human being whose rights and life are not up for debate.
Trans Rights are Human Rights.
My name is Huld (They/ Them) and I hope you have a beautiful Sunday.
