CNN: From Chastity To Chaz

Look who was interviewed on CNN last night:



I thought that Chaz handled himself phenomenally well. I can't imagine how uncomfortable it would be to talk about something so personal on a conservative news program being aired to millions of people.

I also noticed and appreciated how Chaz relayed his own experience gender-wise, like saying, "I wore exclusively male clothing...", but then re-directed the focus, explaining the agony of disconnect, "... lived a lot of my life in my head. It wasn't connected to my body.", and how he went on to ask how Anderson Cooper may feel if he were to wake up tomorrow in a woman's body.

I like this, because the gender component is something that is entirely separate from what's described as the "disconnect", the - in my own experience - physiological underpinning that's lacking the necessary mapping to fuse the mind and body. There are trans men who are hyper-feminine in their gender expression, for example; but transition to connect anatomically.

I know, for myself, that the gender component is definitely separate from the underlying refreshing sensation of finally, bit by bit, experiencing an anatomical connection and going through the puberty my brain is mapped for and has been struggling without all of these years.

The gender component feels more socialized,... like I'm aware that I prefer masculine pronouns, but I wonder how much of that has to do with growing up in a binary gendered world where, due to those physiological underpinnings, I anticipated a male puberty and related more to masculine pronouns. Irrelevant to the why, ... the preference is there, but I can't help but wonder if I grew up in a culture that had "other", if I would've preferred and related to entirely different pronouns altogether.

Er, blah blah side ranting yada yada. Moving on!

Yesterday I spent a lot of time on the campus of the college I will be attending this Fall (assuming all goes to plan - I'm betting it will!) meeting with various departments and getting a campus tour and so on n' so forth. In every.single.meeting masculine pronouns were used galore, despite the fact that my name is still Melanie legally and the paperwork is laying there in front of them.

In the admissions meeting, it was even more pronounced where the admissions lady brought out paperwork from the wrong Melanie. I alerted her to the fact that I'm a different "Melanie" altogether, and she found the right paperwork and returned, - and even confirmed, "Melanie Thomas, right?" - yep!

From her, I learned that, due to my high GPA, I qualify for their maximum tuition grant. And that's the minimum so far. I'll learn more once I actually receive my financial aid stuff next week. Woo!

After our appointment, she walked me around to show me some things (other resources!), and introduced me to everyone in masculine pronouns without a second thought. My being trans never came up once, and even with my feminine-to-all-hell first name, she didn't think to even check the gender mark on my application. I loved it.

And then she brought me to where the campus tour was beginning, and introduced me to them, also, "Hey everyone. This is Mel. He's planning to start this Fall...", ... oh this will be interesting.