When you start wondering at kindergarten why all the other boys get blue plates but you get a pink one, when everyone calls you by a name you feel so horrible about because it's a girl's name, when you have to wear a school uniform you hate because you know that boys don't wear skirts, when people start calling you "Miss", when you are supposed to act like a girl because that's what everyone thinks you are, while you secretly try to find out what is wrong with you and why your entire life feels like a lie. Not to mention the problems with any intimate relationship, because the thought that someone likes a body that feels so completely wrong to you, makes it really hard to let someone close to you. And then comes the point where you have to decide if you want to put up with that for the rest of your life and lie to yourself and everyone you love or if you risk losing a lot of people to become yourself. And that's not a funny path to take.

*crickets*

And I am so glad that nowadays the awareness of gender dysphoria is so much higher than when I grew up, because I spent nearly fifteen years thinking I'm simply crazy and although every time I looked in the mirror it nearly made me cry, because everything looked and felt so absurdly out of place, I just have to live that life because that's how I was born. And I'm so happy for people like Eric who had to fake decades of being someone they weren't deep in side, to finally come out and be who they always were in secret.

Yes, Random panda. If gender is so innate like you claim, then there must be a huge difference, not just some vague feeling. What is it?

Is that a serious question?

Yeah I'd also much rather be "normal" and not go through surgeries, hormone therapies, more awkward situations in my life than I can even write down here. People tend to think we just wake up one day and decide to become something else but you have no idea how much pain, mentally and physically, all of this includes. There's a reason why suicide rates amongst transgender people are so high. It's not all fun and games, you know?

Wow, both of you guys are stronger than I could ever be. Know that there are people (me being one of them) who want you to be happy and will roast the a******s along side you. I look up to all ya'll.

No, i'm trans, i would hundred times rather be "normal", but i just can't, i'm depressed if i'm not acting as what i am deep inside

Really not the same..... But, hey, if you want to say you're a unicorn, I won't stop you....

YOU are the ignorant one.

You don't really get the point. It's a matter of IDENTITY not CHOICE she didn't WANT to become a girl, she already WAS one because that's what she IDENTIFIES as. What she wanted and chose to do is to adjust her appearance, name, etc.

And to put it more simple for you, according to your example: transgender people don't choose to become the opposite gender, they choose to change their appearance, legal status, etc. Gay people don't choose to be gay, they choose to be intimate with the same sex. Clear now?

Are you transgender? If not, how can you decide how we feel?

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but the only difference is the appearance and the legal status. For the rest it's all the same.

brains dont have a sex but your chromosomes do.

They do, there are hormones in it

Did you stop to consider that maybe the person's mind is perfectly fine and it's the body that's wrong? So surgery can correct it, just like any many other physical deformities.

In all actuality, you should treat it as both a mental and physical illness so that you still get the therapy to adapt to the issue and the option to have surgery.

*Sigh* 1/2 This is the hard part. While I don't agree that it's a mental illness in the sense that there is something wrong with the person, I can understand the calling it that. Mostly because when you call someone a disease you bring more attention to it and people try to find solutions to it and become more accepting of it.

2/2 It's like calling a sports car broken because it doesn't run the exact same way as a truck. Well the sports car isn't broken it's just different.

When you call me a snowflake, I think you're assuming that I have hurt feelings, which isn't actually true--I just think you're an a*****e.

Yea agree

Bratislava, you don’t see people with physical deformities like those because THEY HAVE SURGERY to fix the issue.

The heart might be extremely rare, but other organs developed outside the body, Omphalocele, is not so rare. Then again, one out of my four children was born with "birth mark". All these things occur, similarly, in vitro.

well, do you wave your naked body around for people to see? just because you didn't see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist/happen. ever saw your own brain? I'm guessing no, and also I'm guessing you're sure you have one.

Actually, the Da Silva family in Brazil is very well known for having 6 fingers or toes. It's a condition known as polydactyly. Having your heart outside your body is rare but not impossible. The most recent being a 7 year old in Russia who moved to America for surgery. Both conditions have a number of articles written about them if you wanna read them.