I'm also surprised at how little people know about it, but I have to wonder if it's them that don't know much, or is it that I know a lot? When I was a teenager, I had a transgendered roommate and I think that was the first time I learned of it. I now have a cousin who is transgendered (queerness runs in my faimily), so I guess I've had more exposure than most people. I've never seen a transgendered character accurately portrayed, or even a transsexual character portrayed in a way that wasn't offensive. To the masses, anyone who identifies as trans is still the "uknown," or "other," I think. Media could be used as a tool to educate such a huge and diverse audience, but more often than not it's used as a way to demean.

Thank you for posting- I am transgendered - female to male --- there is not alot of knowledge out there -- I work also in a company where "Diversity" is in the forefront, but there are still dealing with racial diversity, tolerating sexual orientation diversity, and are way too perplexed at the idea of gender diversity....I am allowed to dress more masculine but everyone thinks I am more of a lesbian(which is ok as I identified that way for years) than a man........ things will get more interesting as I am able to start physically transitioning and pronouns, attitudes, interactions, and all begin to change -- People do not realize how inbedded gender is in our everyday conversation.......

I am also a transmale. I am fortunate to have a very supportive group of co-workers and friends, even those that don't quite understand why. While I started late, it has been obvious to people that have known me for awhile that I was definitely more male oriented.

In the native community we have a term "Two spirit" to describe glbt people of our culture. I always found it fitting since I felt that my entire life I have had both the spirits in me...a female body and a male gender. They have battled each other at times too...not a pleasant thing.

I saw a news article recently about some school district that was pushing to have a dress code forcing people to dress in gender appropriate clothing only. They said it was to combat the bullying "differently dressed" kids were being subject to. I found it appalling that instead of addressing the bullying, they would force someone to dress in a way that might not be in tune with their gender identity.

The human spirit, soul, body is such a wonderous and expansive thing...why do we feel the need to categorize it and pigeon-hole it into one neat but stifling box?

Kasey

I live in a very progressive community. There are many of us LGBT+ folk here, in fact both of my roommates and the person I am dating are all trans. And even here, people have a hard time with gender.

I've been involved in so many discussions about servers at restaurants gendering people, many of my transmale friends have said they get misgendered here more often than in more rural or less progressive areas. I've even heard debates about whether or not you are being a transmysoginist if you choose to add a hyphen or a space to transmale or transfemale. I know that we have a million miles to go before we have any sort of equality, and I think we are doing ourselves a lot of harm by nitpicking the way that someone else within our minority group chooses to identify.

For my efforts, I've tried to stop using gendered pronouns until I know someone's preferred pronoun, I've tried not to gender groups of people, using "folks" or "y'all" rather than "guys" or "ladies". And I've tried to gently correct others when the opportunity arises.

I believe we have a long way to go before we understand all of the ins and outs of gender, and I for one will work toward it every day.

For those of you who don't know, I have found this to be an excellent website for support: www.susans.org and have heard it recommended by others at my SOFFA meetings.

You know, that is true UKgirl. I tried for a long time to happily join into the lesbian community. While I found great friends there, I always felt like a bystander and at times...an intruder. Being a guy (transmale) some often told me I was the token male to have along.

I still get bothered we need to catalog and file people into one folder or group. A book I read recently written by another guy said he went from being a straight female to a gay male. When I was talking about that at work, many were like "why would someone change like that?" The person didn't change sexuality, they were attracted to men all along. But, they were the wrong gender...and had that corrected. Society has now labeled him as a gay male because of who he always was. Why couldn't he just be a person attracted to another type of person?