Question

Before engaging in the discussion for this week, watch the video, Thrive by Being Yourself in the videos section of Week Three. After watching the video, Thrive by Being Yourself, discuss your reactions to the story of Ryland and his family. How were your beliefs or assumptions about gender challenged or affirmed? What are some of the messages you received while you were growing up gender identity and its development? What are some of the messages you have received about transgender women? Transgender men? How do we make the world a safer place for transgender children and people?

Answer 1

We as a society has some pre designated rules and norma for everyone to follow. Some people do not dare to think outside those norms as they fear that they would be mocked by the society or even would be isolated but fortunately, some people think beyond these norms and truly accept and cherish their individualism, this story is more beautiful because in this parents supported and fought against all odds for the well-being of their child. As rightly said by the parents in the video " we signed up as a parents with no strings attached", I think every parent should do the same and let they children discover their individuality and should not stop them or threaten them for the sake of societal norms.As according to a research 41% of transgender people have attempted suicide due to lack of societal acceptance and that should not be the case.Growing up we were very clearly told that girls and guys are different and have different roles to play, people around are jusgemental and not supportive of the fact that a someone could be born with a female anatomy but her brain could identify with that of a boy. Society does not allow people to discover their gender or for that matter, their sexuality. Life has always been tough for transgender people as they do not fit into 'societal norms', often they are bullied or mistreated. But fortunately, today's generation is quite expressive and people are coming clean with their individuality whether it's about their gender or their sexual preferences and slowly the menatlity of people are changing but a lot more needs to be done. Awareness is important, people needs to understand this basic difference and learn to celebrate it. Different LGBTQ groups or NGOs are working for their betterment but we as a society need to do our part and that is to live and let live, let people be themselves and encourage and support them and uplift each other for a better and progressive society.