What does it mean to be transgender?

Of course, every person has their own answer for this question. But I think there is something all our answers have in common: they are, regardless of any inspiration from history, founded in the here and now. Why do we feel the need to express ourselves as “transgender” in the 21^st century? Gender is a social construct through which we communicate to others what we think and feel of ourselves. Do we, then, feel that the expected confines of gender are too poor to express ourselves with? If so, do they really serve anyone at all?

We have many languages that are not of the tongue but of experience, reason and emotion. We say that lovers have a language of their own, understanding of each other which develops from shared lives. We are starting to redefine a successful relationship as one in which both parties are, or were, satisfied and enriched even if they part. This is a model of unselfish and joyful love, but even more, it is a model of mutual understanding. They have spoken the same language and understood each other better for it.

What happens if we approach any language in our lives as a divisive factor? We limit not only our expression, but our capacity to understand others! We also have a tendency to put fear in the place of the expression we have given up.

But it’s true that each expression, each language we use must have its own purpose or there’s no reason another wouldn’t serve in its place. What purpose does gender have?

There is a society with 65 distinct genders* defined by physical sex, status, age, and other external social characteristics. In the U.S., stepping outside the confines of two genders is awkward, uncomfortable and (for the most part) quietly looked on as antisocial. If our defined genders are insufficient, what would it mean to have sixty-five? At what point of confined definition does gender become a thing to challenge for its poverty of complexity and spirit? At what point of expanded definition is any meaningful coherence to the concept of gender lost?

We certainly are a product of this place and time, I think. We recognize the encroaching limits of social constructs for what they are: barriers to community and to our own nature. We are challengers. We are here to remind our communities that it is wonderful when humans command our created society and that it is terrible when it commands us.

*My apologies. I lost the source from which I pulled this information. I am still looking for it and will provide it in a future post when found. I believe the society in this example is South American. If that sparks any memory in the reader, referring me to what you find would be much appreciated.

Isaac is a 31-year-old transgender man born and raised in Utah. His goal is to laugh as much as he can and to have as much laughter around him as possible.