Is the Spectrum only Black and White?

How many shades of black and white are there?

Exactly!  I’ve heard strict interpretations of us.  Who is “us”?  Transgenders, both male to female and female to male.  This conclusion is based upon our birth biology.  “You’re born a [fill in the blank] and no matter what you do you will always be [fill in the blank].  Just as there are more colors than black and white, there are various slices of science that disprove the birth biology argument.  The science of the mind is in the early stages of attempting to determine why psychological gender differs from biological gender.

If birth screw-ups were impossible explain those born with plumbing for both sexes.  My problem isn’t as pronounced but I know there was a problem somewhere along the gestation cycle.

I toil in the behavioral health field.  This field, which primarily encompasses psychology and psychiatry, has recognized our condition as a medically relevant condition.  These sciences of the mind are beginning to expand into genetics.  Don’t believe me?  Check out the National Institutes of Health website and read about the major focus on genetics.  This is only one example of where science is heading.  Genetics is becoming more deeply committed to discovery and hopefully addressing this problem before the person with the problem reaches majority age. 

Just as not all addicts are made, some are born with genetic predisposition, not all transgenders are made.  As the sciences begin to overlap like a Venn diagram, facts will reveal more about the dysphoria that has inflicted us.

I’m not broadly defining transgenders to include casual cross-dressers and others who have fetishes that are hobbies.  I’m focusing on those of us who were born in the wrong body yearning for redemption.

Those with no common frame of reference, or no common life experience, cannot and should not attempt to pigeonhole or draw unsupported conclusions.  I’d never disabuse anyone from an opinion. If that helps to assuage a shortfall in your existence by all means.  But when opinion morphs into fact, that’s when the ground tilts precipitously and lubricant is dumped by the barrel onto this now slippery slope to oblivion.

We must take care in how we express preconceived notions about things for which we have no factual support.  Don’t think that comment is warranted?  Look at those who inhabit the extremes of society.  Didn’t we recently rail against the state that borders Ohio to the west over protectionist legal statutes advocating selective discrimination?  Need I say more?

How do you think our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters feel about their condition being labeled as lifestyle choice?  They have every right to revolt against such discriminatory thinking. 

Budding research will blossom into scientific support.  It’s happening as we speak.  We’re on the cusp of intelligence that hopefully will benefit our generation and well into the next generations and into the future.

Walk with me on my journey.  We’ll support each other and find ourselves in the right body finally.  I am looking forward to the day when I can live free to express my true gender just like my brothers and sisters who have crossed the chasm and are enjoying such freedom.  Let’s link the L, the G, the B and the T into an inseparable community of support.

Love and hugs, Nikki DeCaro