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Certainly in the years that any of these three were growing up the social atmosphere would have been such that they would have been labeled freaks, and very likely so even by their parents. I cannot imagine that it was discussed with anyone.
Yup. I think the first person to publicly transition happened in the early 1950s. Christine Jorgensen -- had the treatments done in Denmark. So some of them have been finding their way since those days. But for the most part, if you had gender identity issues prior to this century the odds were terrible that you would figure out what it was you were dealing with, much less be able to get into the rarified circles of medical specialists who could help you. Just like in theory a black person could register to vote (and vote!) since Emancipation but until the Civil Rights movement dismantled Jim Crow, in practice, that just didn't much happen.
I lived in a huge metropolitan area and there were no transgender kids growing up in any of my schools in the 80's and 90's....nor do I know of anyone who knew someone that was. People argue that it's because people repressed it and some eventually committed suicide. Has anyone who grow up in the 90's or before known people who took their life because they couldn't live as the sex they identify with? I haven't nor do I know anyone who has. But now most people I know have atleast 1 transgender student in their childs school. Like I said above, we didn't have this 20 plus years ago and from my experience, nobody killed themselves....some girls were tomboys and some boys liked dolls but we didn't have parents fighting for kids to use the bathroom of their choice. It just seems like some forced agenda.
This isn't meant to start any kind of arguement. It is just to share opinions.
Your post is full of assumptions.
1. You assume there were no transgender kids in your area. Have you followed up with every single person you ever went to school with? People didn't talk about this back in the 1980s - at best there was some talk about male crossdressers, but that's about it. Just because you didn't hear about it doesn't mean it didn't exist.
2. Why on earth would you assume to know why someone committed suicide? Were you there?
3. There are many, many cultures that accept and have a place for people who identify somewhere on the transgender spectrum. Just because the traditional USA WASP culture doesn't acknowledge or make a place for them doesn't mean the rest of the world is that way.
4. There are 3 Billion more people on the planet now than there were in 1980. As the population grows, we see more incidences of previously "rare conditions." That's basic math. If 1% of the population is transgender (this is a made up statistic I am using to make a point), then that means there are 30 million more transgender people on the planet than there were in 1980, so yeah, you're going to hear about it more.
In the 20th century for the most part there wasn't even an explanatory framework for the feelings or the experience that a transgender person would have, no label, no diagnosis, no identity. So the question the OP is asking is really kind of silly. Transgender people were miscategorized, even by themselves, as gay, depressed, anxious, and/or whatever. All we have done in recent years is give them a label and an identity and an explanation that they lacked before, and opened up possible ways to cope with the issue.
Much as I think Kaitlin Jenner has more money than sense, and I question the point of going through a transition in your 60s when you have children already and such, she's a clear case of having the existential pain of a transgender person when she was young, but no idea what it was or what do do about it or where to go with it. And having no real options until recently. She is also illustrative that she didn't have to commit suicide to prove she was transgender or something. She lived al lie, her relationships suffered for it, and eventually she quit doing that. I'm of the opinion that, sadly, if a person doesn't transition before young adulthood, that particular train has left the station and it's really kind of late to get much benefit from a transition without hurting people you've already likely committed to and creating more problems than you're solving. But that's easy for me to say as a straight person. It's for each individual to thread that needle for themselves. There's no way I can personally understand at a gut level what its like to be transgender, so I don't attempt to tell transgender people what to do about it. I have considered opinions, but I defer to them on questions of tactic.
Many tg people (female in a man's body) are able to deal with it until midlife when their testosterone levels drop,can their effeminate side and the desire to be a female becomes overwhelming. Also, financially, many cannot afford to transition until later in life. Also, many young people are not confident enough in themselves to withstand the family pressure to confirm and the public shaming that occurs when a man transitions to a woman. Very few men can pass as a,woman without expensive surgery, and even then, their height, body shape may out them.
I cant answer this question. I grew up knowing my aunt used to be a man and now is female. The surgery was illegal in the US when she had it done in another country, that is how long ago.
Whatever my peers were into as kids I didn't notice one way or another.
I graduated high school in the early 1990s, and while there were no known transgenders in the school, one male who was very effeminate (and who identified as "gay" at the time) eventually went on to transition to a woman in the years after graduating high school. But I don't know of anyone who committed suicide.
The difference between now and then is that back then society wasn't as welcoming as it is today. Back then, although there existed famous transgender people, society was not at a place where it was willing to recognize transgender rights. I think transgenderism was mostly seen as a fringe element.
And by the way, anyone who thinks that transgenderism is an "agenda" has simply been brainwashed to think so. It's not an "agenda", it simply IS. It's something that has existed since time immemorial.
I think a lot of people who were transgender identified as gay. It really explains why there are some gay men who have all the mannerisms and behave like women, while others are masculine men who happen to like men. Not that all feminine gay men are actually trans, but it does make a lot of sense.
Today, it has become more acceptable to be transgender and transition has become an option so people feel more comfortable identifying themselves that way.
With that said, I think children should be allowed to be who they naturally are, but should wait until after puberty before making any permanent changes. It's not uncommon to feel you are the wrong sex prior to puberty but then come into your own afterwards.
Transgender is just another stripe in the homosexual rainbow. That being said, I only knew one guy in my HS that probably ended up being gay.
Not necessarily.
The friend of my sister's, referenced earlier? Transitioned FtM, is now married to a guy. Others who transition FtM may seek relationships with women.
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