Sorting Labels / The End


© Li Sam Writing. All rights reserved.

“Today Boy/Girl, Gender, Gender Identity, is about…”

To sum up this “Sorting Labels” chapter, I would like to point out the title and the words “gender identity.” We haven’t really discussed that at all in this chapter. Today, in general, gender identity is regarded as something we want to be, the way we present and express ourselves. Our identity is something we take for granted, that’s who we are. We never really discuss the matter.

But this isn’t entirely true regarding the transsexual phenomenon that I and many others like me have experienced. I didn’t know that I had been born the wrong gender, in the same way as many intersex children are not aware of their handicap until later in life. I did my best to live up to my label of a man, fooling all including myself. I didn’t understand the emotional problems I experienced because of this, and I denied most determinedly the expression it sometimes took, like I was afraid I would be sexually perverted if I gave in; those labels that society and my upbringing had taught me indicated I was a bad person for being so confused.

That something I was born as—today I know it to be my soul and not a psychological disease. This, my soul, I can’t escape regardless of whom I want to be. The transsexual phenomenon proves to me that my soul is hard-wired for gender; if it weren’t, I would have been okay being a man. That my soul is the woman I have so strongly denied and even tried to fight, and in the end that soul is all I am.

The soul is never really discussed, like it doesn’t even exist, and yet there is so much we feel regardless of what we want. This gender identity, our souls, what that is and how it interferes with our wills, we will discuss in the next chapter, “Sorting Gender.”

Finally to consider:

What good do these sexual orientation lifestyle labels do? What are they for?

If you are interested to read more about my thoughts regarding these issues surrounding sorting labels, I have written two other blog entries in 2009: “Pride Parade” and “At the Embankment We Run.” In general many of my small blog tales and stories tell about our true self from various angles. Even if at first impression these seem odd to you, there is a subtle trail to follow. Even if it’s slippery and kind of easy to lose, the path is there and not that hard to find if you give it a try.

I hope that this chapter, as an introduction, will help you find your way through understanding labels.

Thank you,

Li Sam