LGBT Questioning..

If you were to transition to the opposite gender, what things about yourself do you imagine would change? What would change about your roles within your family and other social networks?



I don't know how I feel about this question. This could be considered an inappropriate question. We were questioned this to prompt a freewrite in my Cultural Anthropology class. There were a couple people who vocalized that they found this question offended my beliefs. One part of me rolled my eyes and thought they were being incredibly close-minded and stupid. As one girl responded - we're in college, we're here to learn and expand our views on the world.

*Sidenote: This teacher is new and got completely thrown out of her comfort zone. She had no idea how to respond and it was actually amusing.

I've always been LGBT friendly. I have friends that are both gay and straight. For the most part, it doesn't bother me, it's just the way of life. There are some people that are so far into their world that it seems like they're trying to offend the other sexuality. For the most part, I don't associate with those people. But, I'm much more open to this world than many.

But when I started to try to answer this question in class I found myself uncomfortable and very uneasy on how to even start. I felt my sense of self being questioned and I froze.

It seemed like everyone was very uneasy about it. I think this sort of question does this to any straight person. In our world, gays are tolerated and straight is expected. Straight people tend to use the term "gay as an offensive term. Nobody wants to be on the receiving end of these offensive terms. No straight wants to be accused of being gay.

The fact that this question affected me the way it did thoroughly confused me. I would not expect that a question would make me so uncomfortable. It made me question my beliefs and my perception of my true feelings regarding homosexuality.

I've thought about both my friends and family. The amount of gay/bisexual friends currently in my life is a small percentage. But many of them are some of my closer friends. Many of my closer friends throughout my life were gay/bisexual. But, thinking about my family, I don't have any gay relatives. My uncle's daughter is apparently gay, but I've never met her. My family is a relatively conservative group. And this question asking what would I do if I decided to be a man thoroughly confused me. I wouldn't be accepted into either side of the family. There may be a couple extended cousins that may accept me, but this is just an unacceptable concept. Now if someone decided they were gay, that may be more easily accepted. But I really don't know.

This is a very different thought process for me and I'm still unsure how I feel about it..

Maybe it's just two different worlds. Homosexuality within my family, and, outside my family (friends and work).

Still confused...