In my opinion, I think that we as trans people have no past, a difficult present, and an uncertain future. When I see people online and offline transitioning, mostly they are young people in their pre-teens, teens, 20’s, and 30’s, who can’t wait to transform, because being the way they were born causes so much agonizing dysphoria, and hate from society.Trans visibility is limited, and unless one is watching Jerry Springer or the Chaz Bono story, the trans folks who are visible are young. It’s a little scary actually, to see all these youngsters with piercings in odd areas, hairstyles & tattoos they might regret later, and this enthusiasm to hurry up and transition so they’ll finally be happy. I’m concerned that they aren’t thinking about the future; not thinking beyond the “I’ve completed my transition!!” phase. I just wanna ask a 20 year old: when you’ve finished all the transitioning that you want to do, what do you imagine your life will be like 20 years later? 10 years later? 5 years later? 1 YEAR later!! Some people might not have an answer for me, because a lot of people don’t look past the completion. I mean, congrats that you’ve done it…. but now what are you gonna do with the rest of your life?
I rarely hear or see any trans people that are over 45! I rarely hear or see any older trans people who have fully transitioned (whatever “fully” means to them) 10-20 years ago, and how their lives are now. It just seems like once a trans person gets into a certain age group, and once a trans person has completed all they want to do to their bodies, then they disappear. They vanish! They vanish, and they aren’t around to tell the world of our history! Perhaps they don’t want to. I mean, that’s the point of transition, right? To transform, to move on, and to forget about all the shit you went through to transition, living a “normal” life, blending in with all the cis people.
However, I have spoken to some of the young, pierced, enthusiastic trans folks, and they say that they have NO desire to erase their past, forget where they came from, and not share their stories once they have completed their transition. I’d like to think that these excited, young trans people will follow through, and actually share their pasts with the world once they’re done. I just worry for them (and myself) that our future will be utterly bleak, because we have lacked the storytellers of decades past to share our history with us. To share how life was after they transitioned. I fear that we’ll be lost, wondering, “I finished. Now what? I spent the last 15 years thinking about transitioning, and barely thought about anyone else! How am I supposed to live my life now???” It’s a valid question: how ARE you gonna live your life after completing transition? It’s a harsh, but totally possible, reality that in the future, there could be lots of post-transition depression, and lots of post-transition suicides. People could simply think to themselves that they have absolutely nothing to look forward to, and end their lives.
I don’t have the answer for anyone as to how they should live their lives after transition. It’s not my place to say what people should do with their lives. But I think people should really consider the future, after all that anticipation, excitement, and the joy of completion has worn off.
Skye83 