I have always wanted to be a girl

The title of this post will be a familiar thought to many, this thought has passed through my mind

countless times, it has been with me for as long as I can remember. Unlike some, I never thought I was born in the wrong body, given the wrong gender by society, certainly but the wrong body? no. I believe my gender is female and always has been and as such this is genetic, I was born this way. But if that is true and I am certainly not the only one, this genetic manifestation is a natural part of human development. 

Looking into history there is plenty of evidence of what we now regard as transgender or non-binary going back thousands of years. Doing a search on the internet will throw up countless documents to support this, but if this is the case why is it such a problem for many to even accept that we exist? There is evidence that in indigenous populations of North and South American men taking on the roles of women and living as women was (and is) occurring, similar is true for Africa, Asia and Australia. In Jewish culture and law as many as eight genders have been historically recognised. 

History can not be denied, we are here, always have been and I have no doubt always will be, but something changed somewhere along the way to change peoples perception of us, something challenged the cultures of the indigenous populations throughout the world. Sadly, for someone that comes from northern Europe (UK) it is our forbears that are to blame in many ways. It was the Northern European's take over of North America and their imposition of their culture on the natives without consideration or understanding of the imbedded culture that existed. The Portuguese and Spanish did similar in South America where amongst other peoples, the Inca worshiped a dual gender god. Missionaries in Africa converted what they often described as savages to christianity. And so it was in many countries as colonial forces occupied distant lands they imposed their idea of how society should be operated without any consideration for the local populations. Even Hawaii, in the middle of the Pacific ocean, thousands of miles form the nearest land mass has an indigenous people, the Mahu who are persons assigned male at birth who take on the gender role encompassing both masculine and feminine. If it is any consolation to the indigenous populations around the world the European's treatment of their own transgender people has not been any better and we continue to be treated pretty poorly by many. Having said that, I personally find the people I meet out in the real world very accepting in general....

It is clear then, that what we now term as Transgenderism (itself a northern European term) has existed for thousands of years all over the world, long before the peoples of Europe knew other continents even existed. But today it would seem we are still blind to the fact that being transgender is a phenomenon that naturally occur's throughout the world and should be celebrated as part of our diverse culture and not demonised. I can see being celebrated is a very long way off, but at least showing acceptance, particularly from those in power and influence should be a goal the world should strive for.

As I said at the beginning I have always wanted to be a girl, but in truth it's not so much wanting to be a girl, I don't believe I need to change my body to achieve my goal, it is really about wanting to be the true authentic me.