Letters to the Editor
Out in the Mountains welcomes your letters. Although we will withhold names from printing upon request, the letter must be accompanied by a verifiable name and address in order to be considered for publication. We try to print every letter we receive, but reserve the right to edit for space and clarity. Letters are also subject to the editorial policy stated in the masthead.
Dear OITM:
The author of the article Where Are the Trans Folk began with some excellent questions: Aren’t they activists? Why don’t they participate more?
Her answer is that gender dysphoria and transition are personal medical matters and that many trans people don’t want to be identified as such; I did notice too that there was no by-line.
Like all of us, I am out to those who knew me “before,” or who have been told; for me, that’s a pretty long list. I work at a private boarding school in New Hampshire where I am (probably) the only lesbian transsexual school nurse on the planet. I worked there for seven years before transition; doubters need only consult the old yearbooks.
Acceptance at the school has been very good. Those who objected (to my presence/existence) did so politely, and most of those conflicts have been resolved. No one has been up-front in-your-face rude. For that I had to go to PFLAG and GLSEN. Mainstream gays and lesbians (and from where a transsexual sits, you’re pretty mainstream) can count on going to meetings of the various organizations that claim the rainbow banner and being accepted. Not so for trans people.
Getting savaged by someone’s adorable white-haired grandmother, or being insistently referred to as “he” when you’re obviously not could pretty quickly convince a lot of people that their trans-ness is a personal medical matter. I am not so easily convinced.
I am determined to see the age-of-transition drop; I have seen recently that the average age of coming-out to one’s parents (for gays and lesbians) has dropped to thirteen. I usually refuse to get into what-ifs, but that would have been thirty-two years earlier for me, and it’s hard not to daydream sometimes. The only way to help the young ones, all those who go to bed every night praying for that miracle that never comes, is to get involved. And to be out and proud.
Gail Catherine Piche
Gilford, NH