As I see another call-out from a production company for trans people to share their transition journeys – their very intimate stories of coming out, of hormones and sometimes surgery – it strikes me that many people struggle to see our process of becoming authentic as a personal journey, as a private journey.
I understand that most people don’t know a trans person and I understand that sharing on-screen is a form of second-hand, perhaps even secondrate experience but I also know, from personal experience, that so much of our “transition process” is already structured around pleasing others, about being heard and believed, and about trying to ensure we’re treated with dignity. So much of that process, our process, is in the hands of others, literally.