Signs you may be a gender non-conforming trans person
If you already know that “trans” and “gender non-conforming” are neither the same thing nor on a spectrum, you’re way ahead of the game.
In my words, anyway, “trans” just means that I am* male despite the birth assignment, while “gender non-conforming” means that I don’t always act like one according to some current definition in the zeitgeist. For example, I know nothing about sports and was more than thrilled to wear my half-decade-old maid of honor dress to Pride this year.
In other words, if I wasn’t trans, I would be a relatively gender-conforming woman, since I was never a tomboy or anything you would call ‘butch’.
As you might imagine, this is outlandishly hard to get across to people. As if trans people in general aren’t despised enough, there are entire segments of the adjacent queer community who don’t even believe we exist, exactly because they think transgender itself is just ‘gender non-conforming with low self-esteem and extra steps.’
And yet, as an arguably sane and successful adult, I still came out as a trans man nearly four years ago. I’ve been walking my own social and medical walks ever since and am now 32 years old, boringly integrated into society, and just as boringly satisfied. Surprise! It’s possible.
Without further ado, here are a few signs that you might be both transgender and gender non-conforming, as told through my own life experiences.
