theremyl:

theremyl:

theremyl:

representation not only helps people learn who they are, but also helps educate the people around them so that they can be free to learn who they are

Transcription:

Thread of tweets

[I’m a big advocate for shows having more rep for gender and sexual identities (among many other things) and a major reason is bc damn it would have been easier to figure myself out of I had known being not cishet (even though I didn’t know the term) was an option

so when I was a kid, like 6yo, I was convinced being a boy or girl was dictated by hair length. boys always had short hair and girls always had long hair, idk it made sense at the time, I was 6 okay

So I cut my hair short. Went around being a boy.

Nothing really changed other than that. I still played with the same friends and stuff. Did start going to the boys room

I was very, very sure I was a boy but then my family and all the teachers were like “no, you’re a girl, not a boy”

They didn’t know what being transgender was. In fairness, neither did I, but I knew who I was and I wasn’t a girl. But I was 6 and adults knew better, right? So I let my hair grow out again, went back to being a girl

It went okay-ish until puberty hit and changes started happening. You all know the ones. And I was fucking /miserable/.

I hated my body. Didn’t know why. The concept of being a boy had been pushed out of me for the “better” part of a decade.

Learned about transgender stuff a few years later and now I’ve been transitioning for roughly 2 years

Representation isn’t just about the person who might be trans or gay or bi, etc. It’s also about the people around them learning that stuff like this is normal.

It would have so much easier for me to figure out who I was if I had known about being trans and if the adults in my life had known, too.

So yeah, more representation in media, please.]

End transcription.

Something the media rarely, if ever, talks about is the effects not being cishet has on us other than direct homophobia and transphobia from others

We’re all so socially delayed compared to our peers

We typically get into the dating game later than cishets, and that’s after the whole period of hating ourselves

If we’re dating while we’re in our teens, then we’re either lucky enough to be in a really liberal area, or we’re getting hit with compulsory heterosexuality that leaves us fucked up for who knows how long

And even if we’re in a liberal area (and this seems to be especially true for lesbians) there’s this whole fear that we’re being predatory if we don’t know for sure they like our gender

And then for trans people, or at least for me anyway, there’s this fear that I’m lying to the person I’m trying to flirt with if I don’t reveal that I’m transgender immediately

And after all that, if we’ve managed to get ourselves an SO, that still doesn’t mean both of us are out of the closet (which, in itself, isn’t a great description bc coming out isn’t something we do once, we do it again and again and sometimes we don’t because it’s not safe to), so we have to keep it under wraps

And that’s just the dating stuff