Transgenderism in Teens
Transvestites Relate Their Experiences During Puberty
The teen years can be very challenging for transgendered youth. Two transvestite interviewees relate their experiences as they move out of childhood.
According to APA Online, "Transgender people experience the same kinds of mental health problems that nontransgender people do. The stigma, discrimination, and internal conflict that many transgender people experience may place them at increased risk for certain mental health problems. Discrimination, lack of social support, and inadequate access to care can exacerbate mental health problems".
Question: What was life like for you as a teenager?
Jane: By age 12, I had had my first sex with a male and really enjoyed it. In junior high I spent evenings as a woman and weekends, I was very passable and no one thought anything of it.
Depression has been a major factor in my life. I can remember being depressed as early as 15 years old. Maybe not depressed but I knew there was something wrong. I always felt very lonely in large crowds. The fact that I was just a plain person, not tall, not fat not good looking just a person you would never notice in a crowd. I’m totally afraid of everything driving, heights, crowds, snakes, bugs. As I grew I tended to fantasize a lot and really started to realize that I was not the normal male child. The older I grew the more it hit me smack out of thin air it came. I was an overly feminine male, and then things started to make sense more and more.
My mother blames my dad; my dad blames my mother, so I stayed away from my dad as they were divorced so that made that very easy. My mother never really accepted it, but understood I needed that to remain safe. So we became great friends, and she would help me buy clothes and help me with makeup. By the time I was 16, I could sew better than any girl my age and even made clothes for myself.
Deidre: For a period of two years before I left home I constantly wore female clothes when I was with my sister. I would make any excuse to go to her place and of course she would help me out with excuses. So this brought me and my sister closer together. I guess I expressed it by not playing with the guys, and playing with the girls a lot. I became very interested in girl activities such as sewing, knitting, became very studious. I would read anything that I could get my hands on that had anything to do with makeup and clothing.
Then came a time in my life I wanted out of the game I was getting to old, and if I didn’t stop, my mother would have found out what was going on. So the next time I went to my sister’s house, I told her this was going to be my last weekend as a girl, and how I was afraid mom would find out. She blew her top and said that she would be the one telling my mom and who would believe me. I was 15 years old and she was much older. So I let my sister have her way for a few more years. Then when I moved away from home and I lived totally as a girl for two years getting into prostitution and drugs.
By age 17, I grew to hate myself greatly for what I had become, and yes it drove me so close to killing myself that even I got scared. So I decided to quit living as a woman. I took off out of town and made it as a man. I soon lost the urge to have sex with men, and started looking for a straight mate to be with and start a family.
Question: What are potential dangers of being a male transgendered teen?
Jane: The main danger is that it may prevent the boy from developing his full potential as a man and as a human being. It takes energy and time away from more productive pursuits. It brings isolation and secrecy; it may interfere with, or at least complicate, his relationships with females; it focuses his mind too much on his own pleasure and not enough on responsibilities to others.
Related Articles:
Gender is Destiny: Sex Roles and Individual Expression
He, She and Ze: Transgenderism
TG, TS, TV: Cleaning Up Some of the Confusion
