To be seen

As I was waiting for my bus to depart yesterday, I saw a young confident transgender person somewhere in their 20's walk towards the metro entrance I had recently exited. The overwhelming sense I always get with youth is that they don't care about anyone's opinion because they are free of it; at least much more so than my generation was. 

I think many people could be able to tell that she was transgender but the body language said that she didn't care. She was living her truth. For all I know maybe my assumption of pronouns is even incorrect. 

People my age were afraid to test the elasticity of the binary and for good reason. One thing would be a costume party or a theater performance but it would be quite another to live that way everyday. 

To express what was inside of us meant switching polarity and "passing" as the other sex which could often be frought with dread and plagued with feelings of being an impostor. Even some people who transition medically can be racked with this feeling that they aren't fooling anyone. 

We have done ourselves a favor and dismantled the binary enough to allow people who don't fit into conventional models of masculinity and femininity to exist outside of them. No one stares or bothers them and are thus given more options to exist without switching sides. 

The hardest thing I had to do in my life is embrace authenticity by rewiring my brain circuitry. Existing in any form of secrecy produces revulsion after a while unless your cross gender expression is purposefully meant to be temporary. This means that a formula needs to be found which elevates self-respect and matures the aspects that were forced to be kept hidden. 

Everyone deserves to be seen.