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Hi, and welcome to another episode of the trans 101 series
Today we are going to be talking about
Social transition
What does that even mean?
What is a social transition?
Why am I complicating everything by introducing all of these different types of transitions
To this trans 101 video?
Well, I wanna talk about social transition because
It is something that effects almost every single trans person before they are able to medically transition
If they choose to medically transition
More on medical transition in the previous episode
Please take a look at that if you don't know what I'm talking about and then come back to see me here
What do I mean by social transition?
Well, social transition can mean
Um, coming out to people around you, your friends, your family
Yourself, um, your partner
All of these things, all of these different aspects of your life
But also coming out at work
Alright, and also being able to tell all of these people
That yes, that you are trans
But another aspect of social transition is to
Tell them the new name that you are now going to be going by
And the pronouns that you're going to be using
So yes, this kind of is like, uh, coming out
Because that's basically the main aspect of the beginning of what social transition is, so
[lip smack]
I'm gonna talk about social transition before people start hormones, if they choose to go on hormones
And the reason why I wanna talk about this is because it's something that is so important
And something that
Um, some people can go through and some people
Don't want to go through, so
Um, yeah, let's, let's, let's go into it a little, little more
So, I know some people who have come out as trans
And are on waitlist
In order to get hormones and therapy and, and
All of that fun stuff
And in order for them to still feel like
They are taking charge of their life, and they are coming out, and they are expressing themselves
They have come out to everyone, and they have told them you are now going to call me
By, you know, Chase
And you are going to be using he pronouns
To refer to me
This might be very hard for some people
Because the person that is socially transitioning might not
Physically look like the gender they are trying to present as
I know that sounds rude, but listen
We are in this society that
Has this box, these two boxes of male and female
And if you look like one box, people are going to assume you are that box
So, socially transitioning
Is basically looking at these two boxes
And kind of telling people, I know I look like this
But I am this and you need to see me as this
And that can be very hard for some people, especially if the person, the trans person
Gender nonconforming person
Non-binary person
Does not physically look like the gender they are trying to present as
I'm saying it's hard for some people, because like I said, society is obsessed with these two
Boxes of gender
So, I think that it's
I know this is corny, but it's very brave
For a lot of trans people to socially transition
Especially people who choose to never go on hormones or who can't access hormones
Or pay hormones, pay for hormones
Or be on hormones right now, because their family won't accept them
But they are still choosing to socially transition
I am saying that it's a very brave thing, because this is something that I was not very
I was not able to do
Alright? I was terrified
Of telling people my name and telling people my pronouns
And it was very hard for me and I actually waited
Until after therapy and after I started hormones
To then finally tell people
That I am trans or I go by he pronouns
Because I thought, for me, it was a lot easier for them
To see me as male if I looked male
Which is very problematic, but that's just the only thing that I could do
Now I have friends who
100% before they started hormones
Told people, call me this name, call me this pronoun
And they were very adamant about that, and they would correct people when they would say things wrong
Whereas on my side, I would never correct anyone, because I was terrified
Of correcting anyone
I didn't know that we could correct people back then, that was a very long time ago
So, social transition takes
Guts, so, if somebody comes up to you and
Tells you, hey I'm trans, the person in your life, not some random person on the street, um
They come out to you, and they're letting you know
It is very, very important to respect them
And to
Don't go and, aww you're so brave, don't say that
But it's very
It's very important to be respectful of the person's name and then the person's pronouns
Now, I've talked about this in this series as well
How important names and pronouns are
Especially when somebody is socially transitioning
So, obviously take a look at those videos, I'll put the links in the description below
But I think that this concept is super, super important for people who
Are not able to either go on hormones, can't afford it, their family won't accept them
Or for people who never want to go on hormones
You're still transitioning
Just because an individual does not want to medically transition
Does not mean that they are not trans
Their transness, and their trans identity, and their transition
Is as valid as somebody else who medically transitioned
I went a little bit into this
Into the medical transition video that I posted previously
Um, so take a look at that if you want me to kind of repeat myself here
I feel like once we acknowledge that
Trans people aren't
The same
We don't all have the same life story, weren't all
Traumatized as children, or had good childhoods
We don't all transition the same way, we don't all want hormones
I think it is super, super important that we
Respect the trans people in our lives
And if you are at work
And you have a trans person that has come out at work
And maybe you don't know them that well, but you hear other people kind of, like, talking
Smack, and
Saying some very rude things about this person, and
And maybe you watched this video, and maybe now you know a little more about trans people, and
It's a good idea to either stand up for that person, or
Be, just be an ally for them
But I think it's super important if you're at work, and
You have somebody, a coworker, who just came out as trans
It is, I know that it can be very hard at first to respect someone's pronouns or respect someone's name
Especially if they don't look like the gender
That you're associating those pronouns with
Like, you're saying he, and in your mind
He means male pronouns
Problematic, but that's another story
So, you're like, oh, male, this person has to be male, they have to look male
But your image of what looks male isn't what the image of what this person might look like
And you kind of have to
Rethink and reevaluate
The way that you see people and the way that you see society
And honestly, like
The biggest thing here is about respect
Social transition is so important for so many people
In the commu- in the community, and
Um, some people are too scared to do it
Other people are doing it, and they were thriving, and they are still thriving doing it
And those are the people who
Are absolutely amazing
And deserve to
[Sigh] I wanna give you a gold star, because you're awesome
For doing that, it's just, it's hard, I can't even
I can't, not like I can't even imagine, like obviously I can
But
Um, it is, it is something that is very
Hard to do, especially
With societies rigid rules
Also, I'd like to point out that some people might not consider their transition a social transition, they might just say that they're transitioning
Um, I'm just giving a name to it, because a lot of people talk about social transition
Especially before they're able to go on hormones
Okay, so this is like a
It's kind of a like, uh, if you're gonna put a timeline on transition for some people
Socially transitioning is usually the first step
Because you're admitting to yourself
How you felt your whole life
And then you're telling other people, and then you're telling other people to
Respect who you are and to respect your pronouns
And in my opinion, that's what socially transitioning is
Anyways, I hope that this video helped a little bit, if you have any questions, please put them in the comments below, I will put links to everything that I talked about in this video
In the description, and I will see you for the next episode
Have a great day, bye
Testosterone levels, in their body
In order to produce testosterone nat-
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