The plethora of struggles being an adult Trans Woman transitioning during a global pandemic.

Thinking Woman, photo by michael_reuter, creative commons

There’s a global pandemic around, that is causing people to cower in their their homes, and this is considered one of the worst things that has happened to the world in a long time.

However, many people have had other struggles that coincided with this. For some, it was losing their job. For others, it was delayed income. For others, family tragedies shook their family.

Me, I had the additional struggle of transitioning during this time period. Having discovered I was assigned the wrong gender at birth, this year has been spent traversing into the realm of womanhood. I took the plunge, to finally begin transitioning proper.

And so my transition began, with regular access to family and the larger community removed due to a global pandemic. I was braced. The trans community is filled with stories of the horrors of transition. Increased risk of suicide, homelessness, increased risk of conflicts, etc.

So, I made it a point to remember to make a list of all the difficulties of transitioning that I had the last year. Are you ready for the whirlwind? Let’s go!

1. Periods suck. Yes, trans women get periods much like cis women do. They’re worth it to actually feel like a human for a change, and a small price to pay, but they still suck (lacking a uterus, my body decides to bleed from other places, and cramp in yet other places to make up for it.)
2. Citi Bank were real a$$holes about complying with my government-mandated name-change documentation, even when I was presenting them piles of forms and went to their offices in person to do it, because they demanded it during a pandemic. And even then they refused to change it, saying there wasn’t enough documentation (never telling what this mystical documentation was, despite me bringing all the forms listed as required on their site). I resubmitted three times, twice they said it was taken care of, but they really didn’t and had just lied to me and sent me a ‘replacement card’ with my dead name on it. I eventually got frustrated with the runaround called in (not exactly this way, shortened & altered for the sake of clarity and brevity) and said, “Oh, excuse me… I made an error when signing up for my account. I accidentally put on my husband’s name instead of my own.” “Oh, I see that, that’s silly mistake. Let’s get that corrected for you.” “Do I need any kind of paperwork?” “No, you’re fine. It’s an easy change. And done! Have a nice day, ma’am.” “Thank you dearie, you too!”

And that’s it. No increased depression, no major break in productivity, no sudden homelessness. In fact, everybody I’ve come out too has just been ecstatic for some actual human communication. “Call you ‘she’ now? Sure! I’ll call you queen of the moon if it gets me another phone call. Dear gosh it’s nice to hear someone’s voice.”

In fact, my transition has been so seamless and smooth and easy that 2020 was honestly a fantastic year for me, and I’ll look back on it fondly as a time when I could take some time out to just become myself.

Just goes to show, the most of the famous struggle of transitioning is simply other people. I honestly wish most trans women could be as lucky, to have such a smooth transition. Maybe when this whole pandemic is over, people won’t feel the need to politicize our bodies anymore? Maybe not, but I experienced what transition should be for all trans women (minus citi bank, screw them). And hopefully that glimpse into an ideal world will help other trans people realize, “No, the problem here isn’t me. The problem is the sexists who think that me just being treated fairly is somehow a monumental task.”