Gender

My freshman year of college I took a course that truly changed my perspective. The college I attended was a liberal arts school and students are required to take classes in different courses not pertaining to their major; one of the areas was minorities and culture. I decided to take a class about transgender, I thought it would be easy and I could just get it out of the way. What I didn't realize is that it would open my eyes to something I hadn't really thought about before. I myself am a supporter of LGBT rights and I believe that they can choose the life they want to lead. I didn't really understand the concept of what transgender was or what the people who are transgender go through. The first day of class our professor asked us to define sex and gender. Most people use the words in a way that they seem to have the same definition, however what I learned is this: Sex is male or female based upon whether you were born with the x chromosome or the y chromosome, whether you have male sexual organs or female sexual organs. Gender is a grouping based on what type of societal stereotype you reside with. Let me explain, society as whole divides people into masculine and feminine often we place those of the male sex in the masculine group and those of the female in the feminine group. With those that are transgender they identify themselves in a gender group based on their own personal gender identity and not on the sex they were born with. A lot of people, including myself up until I took this course, don't understand what it means to be transgender. Most people think that those who are transgender are just confused or that they are some kind of mentally unstable individual. However like people who are gay/lesbian transgender people don't choose to feel the way they do, they are just born with the understanding that the body they have isn't who they are. Religious people will say that this is wrong, and I don't believe that to be true. God created all of us in his image, he created each of us to be who we are; those who are transgender they were just brought into this world with the wrong body. In the womb we start out all the same, and through the process of gestation and through hormone development we either become male or female. God doesn't care what you do to your body as long as you love yourself and him, people cover their skin in tattoos and piercings and we put on clothes that represent our personalty and some people get botox or plastic surgery so tell me how that is any different from wanting to change what sex you are. Who you are on the inside is all that matters and if you want to change the way you look on the outside then shouldn't you be allowed to? On average we all have the same looking brain the same looking heart and we all have the intangible thing that we call a soul, those are the pieces of us that are important they are what make us who we are and what are body looks like doesn't matter. In the class we watched a lot of movies and I think that three of them will help people understand what its like for those who aren't happy in their own skin and how free they become when they embrace who they really are; Boys Don't Cry, Transamerica, and The Birdcage. Again I wish to reiterate that this is only my opinion and I do not wish to offend anyone, please don't leave negative comments.