Answers to Your Questions About Transgender People, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression
-in response to an article of the same name published by the APA
What is it like
to be transgender?
I am tired of being
the umbrella in the room.
My tongue is not your glossary.
Textbook teeth
pulled from my mouth
but you cannot read.
Rocky Horror uses the word transvestite
why can’t I?
Bitch.
I am not a drag
king or otherwise.
You cannot call me Queer
AFAB
FTM
when you have not been afforded
my name.
Well, you’re either a boy or a girl.
You can’t be neither.
I am bound
by elastic wrapped ribs.
I disappear my breasts
when I know the world does not believe
in magic or women
who don’t want to be
your sister,
your girlfriend,
your housewife.
Are you sure
you’re not just a tomboy?
I will not be transgendered
back
to titles assigned at birth,
damned for tongue
tracing clit.
I do not play in the mud
by choice.
Are you ever afraid,
afraid to die?
What Should Parents Do If Their Child Appears to be Transgender or Gender Nonconforming?
“Parents may be concerned about a child who appears to be gender-nonconforming for a variety of reasons…when what they believe to be a ‘phase’ does not pass.” —American Psychological Association
peaches in our home
begin to rot drain flies
swarm plastic lilies
wilt I wretch at the taste
of mother’s perfume in the air
dressing me in sheets
strawberry baby shit
pink I am stuffed
in shoe boxes
Steve Madden heels
a prom dress wasted
I want the tux I want
to french tuck I want to be
a person
not your daughter
I want shoulders like walls a mirror
image of gruff face X
under sex instead
of a split cheek crocodile
smile when you purposely misspeak
my name
Schick teeth ready
to shave my legs smooth
me over
so you don’t have to wonder
what to do if
I become something pitted
something new
Nik Buhler is a writer and undergraduate student at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.