Real stories from the World - LGBTQ+

Shane - the U.S.

  Hi !! My name is Shane, but you know me as @VicFuentesfutureman . I wanted to share my experiences as a trans male. I was so excited when you posted your new work, and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to speak out about this topic. So, I'm only fifteen and in tenth grade, which seems too young to be transgender to some people. I only realized that I'm trans a few months ago, when I was fourteen. I told my social worker about how I was feeling and she was super supportive. I then came out to my school psychologist. He was also really supportive. They told me that they would help me anyway that they could help. Next, I told my friends, who were also extremely supportive too. In fact, two of them are transgender as well (and one also happens to have caught my eye ;) ) 

  Anyway, there was a problem. I didn't know how to come out to my mom. She's really into her religion, so I knew it would be a huge obstacle. To sum things up, I came out to her, because I was tired of hiding who I am, and she did not react well at all. She was nice about it when I told her because she was with other adults (the social worker, school psychologist, and my case manager), but when we were home, she would try to convince me that this was hormonal and that I was just confused. 

She still does that when the topic is brought up. She has lashed out at me a few times about this topic, and forces me occasionally to go to her religious meetings. Some people would say that I don't have it bad- actually, I'm sure many people would say that, but this has gotten to the point of emotional abuse. I know that there are kids part of the LGBTQ+ community that have been physically abused and/or kicked out as well, and they have it a lot worse unfortunately, but that doesn't and shouldn't minimize the stuff I and many other people are going through. I may not be damaged physically, but I feel such strong emotional pain that it becomes physical. 

This emotional abuse has driven me to attempting suicide multiple times, even though the abuse was not related to my gender identity. I still think about suicide because of how my mom has treated me. She has no respect for LGBTQ+ people, and it's saddening. I believe that everyone should be treated equally and treated like a human, because that's what we are. We're all humans. 

So, another challenge, besides my mom, is the gender dysphoria. It's really been kicking my ass. That's for sure. I'm sharing this so people know how others that deal with this can be affected. For me, I have a really hard time changing my clothes, and I haven't showered in over a month, because of the gender dysphoria and all depression. It's hard for people with dysphoria like this. Of course, it's different for everyone, and some are worse. To get my point across, I will just say that I'm sharing this so people can be more aware of what some LGBTQ+ people go through. I haven't even shared everything that has been going on, to save you the boredom of reading this, but there are a lot of challenges for us. Like I said before, there are some situations for certain people that are worse than others. The people in this community are humans; they have feelings and deserve to be treated right. They shouldn't have to deal with discrimination or hate crimes because of the way they are. We should all be proud of being who we are and not let anyone put us down. That's much easier said than done, but I think it's possible. For me, I'm really trying hard to work on that, and I'm also working towards going through a full transition of top and bottom surgery, legal name changes, and currently, being called by my preferred name and pronouns in school. People always tell me that it will get better, and I'm trying to believe that maybe there is a reason to be alive. I hope that other people keeping fighting through all of this crap we have to deal with so they can be happy and live their lives. It won't be easy, but there's a significant possibility that it will all be worth it.  

/Shane