Thank you Melissa and Suzanne!!! Very well said.
Caitlyn's coming out has made us more visible to the world. People now know what being transgender is all about, and are aware that we exist and that we are real human beings. Plenty of people who knew nothing about us are were unaccepting towards us have become accepting of us. I even heard, and I wish I could find the survey to back this up, that the percentage of people that accept us has gone from less than a quarter of the population to two thirds of the population. This is everybody accept the extreme right wing religious fundamentalists, TERFS, and some hard core atheists/scientific minds like my father.
Thank you Melissa for pointing out that Caitlyn waited until 65 to transition. She suffered for 65 long years of her life before finally coming out. Many of us here transitioned sooner, yet we all waited a long time. I waited 34 long years of my life to finally begin transition. Some of us waited 20 long years, 42 long years, 50 long years, 58 long years, 73 long years, 28 long years. And those are very, very, very LONG years of suffering with GD. Caitlyn suffered for 65 of those LONG years. Just because she had all the money and best resources in the world didn't stop her from suffering with the same GD that many of us here suffered with. It didn't give her the courage to transition younger. It didn't spare her from losing 65 years of her life.
Thank you Suzanne for mentioning male privilege. I do notice that it tends to be people who don't have male privilege, either cis-women who never had it, or transwomen who gave it up, who tend to be the activists. There are plenty of people with male privilege who simply don't want to fight, and why would they, because being a cis-gender heterosexual white male comes with all the privileges you could ever have in this world - they have nothing to fight for.
I would like to give a special thanks to two transgender activists, one who is an active member of this forum. Caitlyn Jenner, and PaulaQ. Thank you both for the wonderful work you have done for the trans community. Caitlyn for coming out, being yourself, and making people aware that we exist, and with all the media scrutiny. Paula thank you for all the hard work you have done on this forum for helping people struggling with serious gender issues to get the courage to accept themselves and to transition, for all the work you have done for the CDers on this forum, and for the work you have done in Texas. Both have given up their male privilege and their cis-gender hetero-normative privilege.
