Treating Rainbow-Colored Patients By Richard S . Cook
Imagine two people looking at a mountain from opposite sides . One sees lush , green forests and the other sees steep , intimidating crags . They are looking at the same mountain , but their experiences of it are very different . Neither is wrong . Neither is fake or invalid ; they are just different .
Most people are born into a body that they feel at home in . Sure , they might want to trim a few pounds or make some parts a bit perkier , but as far as the identity itself goes , they are comfortable as a man or woman . But that is not how everybody experiences the “ mountain ” of gender . According to recent research , only 44 % of people surveyed believe that there is such an identity as transgender ( Brown , 2017 ). Interestingly , 80 % of respondents who identified as Republican said transgender does not exist , but 64 % of Democrats agreed that it is real ( ibid ).
For example , I am a white , cis-het man . Cis means that I was born looking like a boy , and I have always felt that I was a boy . Het is short for heterosexual : I have always been romantically and sexually attracted to women . But those are not the only ways to experience identity and attraction .
Others identify as non-binary ( NB , for short ), an identity that does not conform to traditional views of men and women as being the only available options . As rights and awareness of lesbian , gay , and bisexual people grew , the issue of gender identity became more of a public issue , and additional letters of TQIA2S , referring to transgender , queer or questioning , intersex , asexual , two-spirit , have been added to the common LGB acronym .
What do Transgender Folx Look like ? Folx is a gender-neutral way to refer to those in the LGBTQIA2S community . In the 70s , a man who dressed in women ’ s clothing was thought a deviant and called a transvestite . Today , we understand this behavior may represent a disconnect between the gender suggested by one ’ s genitals and the identity a person feels on the inside . This inequality is referred to as gender dysphoria , and often leads people to describe themselves as transgender , or trans for short . A transman is someone who was born with female genitalia , but identifies as a man . A transwoman is someone born with male genitalia , but identifies as a woman .
Transgender people may dress or groom themselves in many different degrees of gender clothing . Some may take hormones or have surgery to make their bodies look more like how they feel inside . Others may not . It is important to remember that if you have never felt like you are in the wrong body , if you have never felt like you are expected to dress , speak , sound , and behave in ways unlike how you feel , then your experience of life is very different from that of a trans person . Nurses have a huge responsibility to be compassionate , to accept people as who they say they are . As nurses , we need to respect their experience and help these beautiful souls bloom . When they say that in their view the mountain looks craggy , we need to be open to the idea that not every side of the mountain is covered in forest as we have experienced it .
Transgender and Intersex A transgender person feels inconsistent with the body he or she was born in , whereas an intersex person was born with a physical discrepancy . Approximately 1 in every 1500 to 2000 babies are born with obvious genital ambiguity ; this equates to 1.7 % of births annually . For comparison , only 0.3 % of births are twins ( InterAct , 2020 ).
Historically , intersex babies born with genital ambiguity have been operated on to “ correct ” their appearance . Research published as recently as 2017 found that 35 out of every 37 intersex babies undergo gender assignment surgery ( Nokoff et al , 2017 ). Those who are surgically assigned a gender soon after birth can grow up with gender dysphoria , shame , isolation , and depression ( APA , 2006 ).
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