5. Sex

Oooh I bet you thought....where is she going with that title?

Well if it tickled your fancy.....for this blog at least, you might be disappointed. I'm sure in the future I'll revisit the more salacious elements of being Transgender but for now I'll keep it clean.

No this one's about biology.

I was assigned male at birth. No DNA testing, no chromosomes tested and certainly I wasn't asked! 

How therefore was the assignment undertaken....as was the same with my kids 30 years later by a glance between your legs.

That however is a real inaccurate way of defining someone who will grow and develop into an individual who will differ fundamentally from ever other person.

I get for medicinal reasons that certain things are defined by your biology and bits - there are some differences. However this is only a miniscule part of who you are. To be fair for 99.9% of your life, you are the only one who sees your bits.

Yet we find ourselves in a position where a decision as a baby is life limiting and now seeks to divide rigidly along that assignment.

Where we pee, where we wash our hands and even where we congregate as humans in groups of mutual benefit is being pushed as male or female..... rigidly.

I accept that there is systemic discrimination against females. I accept that there is an totally unreasonable risk to female safety.

However this is zero the fault of my community. 

Statistically you are as a female most at risk in your own home from your partner or a friend or family. Stranger danger is statistically rare but gets the most headlines.

The acceptance of domestic violence as a term is part of the issue. It should be banned. Your relationship doesn't change an assault or rape from being exactly that.

Misogyny is a huge problem and it needs to be shot down at every point. It's not banter or fun to demean. It's offensive and should be socially unacceptable.

Banning or restricting my community does zero for feminism or safety because put simply we aren't the threat. Indeed we are as much threatened and subject to abuse.

In terms of my birth assignment, I have my chromosomes I was born with left and nothing else. A recent scientific report reference changes to DNA in transgender individuals after treatment so should I be categorised now only on my never tested and unseen chromosomes?

If so then ladies....wait until you see a transman!! Beard, tats, muscles....far more masculine than I ever was. They'll be in the ladies and if that doesn't open the door to predators....

So think on. We generally don't treat anyone with a presumption of risk just because they are of a certain group.... We've messed that up not long ago and we aren't repeating that...are we???

Amanda ❤️