#ingela

In honour of Pride Month coming to a close, I'm going to do something I might regret and share some of my story and opinions on Tumblr. I'm going to try to stick to the stuff that has to do with the LGBT community so it doesn't get too long. Ever since I was a toddler, I can remember wanting to be a boy. I would put things between my legs and tell my mother that I was a boy! And when I began to hit puberty, I was incredibly uncomfortable with these new developments. I was distraught and I felt like I was in the wrong body, classic trans experiences, right? Another thing I'll include is that my entire life I've expressed interest in marrying both girls and boys, and I'm so grateful that my family was always accepting of that. However, in middle school I tried to fit in and so I only had "crushes" on boys, and my mom was aware of this. When I was in grade eight, I told my mother I was a boy. It broke my heart when she told me it was a phase and how she urged me to not make any brash decisions like changing my identity yet, because she knew it would be scary for me to change back if I turned out not to be happy. A little while later, for reasons unrelated, I began seeing a psychologist and a paediatrician and they put me on an assortment of medications for things like ADHD and depression. This is where my memory gets a bit foggy. Over the next couple of years, I started to feel less and less dysphoria. Perhaps this is because of my medications, or my psychologist helping me to feel better about who I am, or maybe I gradually became more comfortable with myself. And I've stopped feeling the need to transition to being a man. I still feel dysphoria concerning my genitals, but I've learned ways of ignoring it. I am certain that this is not the case for most if not all transgender people. Transgender people are completely valid and not all cases of dysphoria can be "cured" like mine. What I'd like to say with this is that atypical gender/sexuality situations are nothing to be ashamed of, no matter how nervous I am putting this out there. If anyone at all would like to talk to me about my gender or sexuality, or their own gender or sexuality, or even gender and sexuality in general I would love to! Even though pride month is finishing up, you can always talk to me about your experiences and not be afraid of harsh judgment. Thank you to anyone who reads this!