Call him TM. No, he’s not hiding his face because he is ashamed of who he is. It’s a matter of keeping his personal life separate from an amazing career. So why is he different? For now let me just say that TM has walked a lifelong path that most of us could not begin to fathom.
Imagine getting a Barbie Doll for your birthday when you would rather have a baseball bat and a catcher’s mitt. Imagine being told to wear a dress to school when you’d rather wear a pair of blue jeans. Imagine growing up not fitting in with the girls because you think differently from them, but also not fitting in with the boys because you don’t look like them. Growing up is a long row to hoe for everybody. Multiply that by ten fold if you were born in the wrong body.
- Image thinking like a man, seeing the world as a man sees it, but this is what’s between your legs.
TM is a straight male in his thirties, from in the western U.S and has a steady girlfriend. He normally does not share intimate photographs of himself, but has chosen to use Enlightened Male as a forum to broaden knowledge and understanding about transgender people.
During the course of our correspondence, I asked TM what he thought about his body: “I used to hate my female body. As I am slowly developing a more male-appearing body, I am becoming more comfortable in my own skin. I am OK for now with having female genitalia.”
TM likes being nude in the right setting, and in private he enjoys exploring his changing body. He has never experienced a nude beach. His fantasy is having a beautiful, complete male body and sharing the experience of being naked with someone else. He has had chest surgery to have a male chest and has been on testosterone for several years, so other than the genital area, he is a male. The genital reassignment surgery will come at a later date.
So now you have been introduced to TM. For this essay he has provided pictures of his body; and what follows in his own words is a glimpse of his heart.
I am a transman. You pass me every day on the street. I look like an average guy and you have no idea that I was born a female. It’s not that I don’t want you to know, it’s just that you really don’t need to know. Because I am just me.
Even though you don’t need to know that I am trans, there are some things I do want you to know. And that is what this segment is about. I hope that you can understand a little more about people like me and have a new appreciation for people that may be different than you. Continue reading
