Politeness norms seem to keep a lot of folks from discussing or asking their trans friends questions they have, I figured at the very least I could help try to fill the gap. Lemmy has a decent trans population who might be able to provide their perspectives, as well.

Mostly I’m interested in what people are holding back.

The questions I’ve been asked IRL:

  • why / how did you pick your name?
  • how long have you known?
  • how long before you are done transitioning?
  • how long do you have to be on HRT?
  • is transgender like being transracial?
  • what do the surgeries involve?

For the most part, though, I get silence - people don’t want to talk about it, or are afraid to. A lot of times the anxiety is in not knowing how to behave or what would be offensive or not. Some people have been relieved when they learned all they needed to do is see me as my gender, since that became very simple and easy for them.

If there are trans people you know IRL, do you feel you can talk to them about it? Not everyone is as open about it as I am, and questions can be feel rude, so I understand why people would feel hesitant to talk to me, but even when I open the door, people rarely take the opportunity.

  • Cris@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    Super interesting, thank you for taking the time to teach me a bunch of things!

    To my personal understanding from being amab (though I did transition at 16, but never went through voice training and these days am more masc aligned) and also my understanding from the video- yes men generally stop having voice cracks post puberty with rare exceptions like when intensely emotional or something, not because there isn’t still a sharp transition, but because they learn to control their newly changed vocal cords, developing an intuitive understanding of that transition and avoid it because it’s generally thought of as embarrassing for your voice to break.

    Voice breaks are a puberty specific experience that is often thought of as a awkward and embarrassing transition into a new “adult” masculine voice

    (Forgive me if I’m explaining the obvious or misunderstanding, I’m super tired and not entirely sure I’m reading your comment correctly at the part you seem to be asking about this. Regardless, I hope you have a lovely day :)