The Future of Transgender People
Transgender awareness and acceptance came a long way over the past decade: that significantly changed public perception of transgender people. Our situation will only improve in years ahead as this visibility improves.
However, the most important phase? The chapter we write for ourselves?
That future - is up to us!
Additional chapters in This Section include:
Financial Success for MTF Transsexual Women
The Working Transsexual Woman
Surviving the Financial Downturn from a Gender Transition
Financial and Career Traps for Transsexual Women
Overcoming Financial Devastation
How NOT to become a Transsexual Economic Victim
Business Success as a Transsexual Woman
Transgender Millionaires
Financial Success to TS Women
The Promising Future of Transsexual Women
Every Minority Group Eventually Gets a Fair Shot
Say what you want about the United States. You can rag our politicians, detest our judicial system - but at the end of the day? Ours is still the “best” in this world.
Also, the American public tends to eventually give every minority group a fair shake. However, what they won’t provide? A free lunch.
Any minority group that stays wallowing in its circumstances and does’t build and bond from its own devices usually remains a forever-victim and loses support from the public.
We’re almost at that crest.
I discussed the importance of breaking free of the economic victim mentality in a previous section.
It’s a trap as old as time.
Key Goals for Transgender Women in the Coming Decades
Here, I’m sharing my personal opinions regarding important goals and objectives for the future of the transgender community. I look forward to cheering you on - as you accomplish many of these essential objectives.
The key to eventual success for any minority group is usually found when it develops its own “economic might”. There’s a handful of ingredients that will optimize this opportunity, including:
We Must Find Our Niches
I recall when women first rose to C-level prominence in corporate America. It usually began from human resource positions but eventually evolved to IT and even finance. Finally…there were a handful of successful women CEO’s on Wall Street.
As with the inspiration from Jobs & Zuckerberg amongst the ecosphere of nerds & geeks, the human psyche responds most aptly to real example. Aside from entertainment & reality TV – trans culture hasn’t yet crossed the mainstream business chasm with large scale business: its time to break that barrier.
We will need to blaze paths and create real life examples of success in the highest echelons of corporate America, amongst entrepreneurial growth companies - and perhaps most important to the preponderance of trans-women: entry level opportunities that can evolve to a path of success.
Every successful minority group before us owned a number of niches and society embraced their stellar inherent performance.
We need lots more real post-transition success stories to inspire and lead others!
We Must Improve Public Opinion
Public awareness of transgenderism is the highest and best I’ve ever seen during my thirty plus years of involvement. However, we can do better.
I think there’s three components to this issue:
1. Real Life Successes: To date most of our media exposure shared the stories of transition or related activism. I think the public wants more results driven success examples: success in their same mainstream activities.
2. Reveal an injustice: Everyone tends to inherently understand an injustice. Sharing when they happen to us can help get more people to sympathize with the challenges we face. However, there’s a difference between an injustice and not getting our way. We’re a minority: we’ll always face challenges getting ahead. Obstacles are a way of life but roadblocks? That’s an injustice!
3. Don’t Cry Wold: The worst thing we can do is create media fervor over ridiculous circumstances. Did I think it was unfair when I life-time convicted felon was forcing his state to pay for GRS with tax dollars when so many hard-working trans-women can’t yet save enough to get it done on their own? Damn right I did. Was I frustrated by the tram-person that cried to create a media storm after she was ejected for using the women’s restroom in a club - while insisting she stand up while peeing? I was livid by that crap. These sorts of stories are often devastating to our cause.
Rules of the Game
To become an important player in knocking down these larger aims, there are a few ingredients you’ll want to keep in mind:
You have to do it better than others.
Know what’s most challenging about transition if your journey began as a white anglo saxon protestant male? You never really knew what it was like to be judged and reduced before opening our mouth. I sure didn’t understand that reality before changing genders.
A key ingredient to success as a minority is making friends with the reality you have to do everything better than others - to even get a chance to get ahead.
Is that fair?
No, it’s not - but is reality.
If you make friends with this concept and prepare accordingly, you’ll succeed that much faster and remain happier.
Let go of “First Tranny Syndrome”
Another mentality limiting our potential success is a common desire by most transgender women to be the first trans person to do “whatever”. It’s getting to a point where these accolades are distracting and ridiculous. I was once caught up with similar desires. I finally realized my biggest and best contributions needed to be about my own happiness: not some ridiculous accolade.
This is not a new condition. William Shakespeare surmised it best: “Nothing is so common as the desire to be remarkable”.
Be happy. Chase your goals. Seek nothing in return but a safer future and more joyous existence.
You’ll never win the rat race - and even if you somehow did?
You’re still a rat.
Quit Clobbering Each Other
I was amused one night after hearing Bill O’Reilly espouse comments regarding “the transgender agenda”. Anyone who knows trans-culture is aware the biggest obstacles we face is we can’t agree on anything. We’re forever pulling in opposite directions - often just to spite another.
I recently came across a list that included the top 100 trans-women based upon some sort of ranking. I felt quite proud as I read so many wonderful achievements. However, my enthusiasm waned as I started reading moments down below: tons of girls bickering about why they weren’t included on this list.
Really????
Also, if a transgender woman is included in a major media profile? Other trans-girls are quick to disclaim the veracity of her “story”. So what if a gal fudged some details of her journey. I would never have the courage to share the complete truth of my own past: it’s freaking ugly!
Come on ladies: give it a rest. The fight - is out there: not here!
Try to support and remain sympathetic to those gals willing to visibly share their journey. If accolades are important to your affirmation and you felt left out by an award? Apply for inclusion in next year’s list. Perhaps the committee just missed your achievements by mistake.
Don’t trash other gals in your frustration. Remember: it could be you getting trashed next!
We have to help others
I’m often asked why I’m no longer directly active in transgender projects and causes.
Simple - I’m very busy - building my new life. I made such a mess of things during transition: often feels like I’m reconstructing following a level five hurricane.
I’m hoping to eventually build a consequential company as an openly post-transition transgender female entrepreneur. When I say openly? That means I won’t hide my lineage. However, I’m not dumb enough to make it a cornerstone of my business identity. That is not an asset when it comes to public relations on Wall Street. If I stay focused and deliver the goods? I can help provide badly needed financial assistance to so many important transgender support causes.
I still continue to directly counsel select trans-women with improving their lots within chosen careers. Previously, I directly mentored eight different transsexual women through transition.
This combination of work projects that also include a higher purpose plus directly helping others is not new: I copied it from trans-women I most admired when I started my own transition.Their wisdom is a big key to our future success - we must reach back and help fertilize a better crop of trans-women for the future.