Over on the Huffington Post, you’ll find a fabulous and thought provoking essay about trans* experience outside of the “always knew I was trapped in the wrong body” narrative, written by trans* & queer writer/activist Ira Gray. 

Mr. Gray isn’t saying that that  narrative and experience is not  perfectly valid. There are in fact a number of trans* people in my own life who identify strongly with it.

However, there are also a good many trans* people whose experience is different, again including several other trans* people in my life. Because of the binary way we tend to construct gender in our society, it can be challenging for people with more varied and complex experiences of gender and trans*-ness to have their journeys and self-identities recognized, by both the world at large and by the trans*/LGBT community. Ira delves into this challenge with eloquence, and given the (immense) potential for backlash from multiple directions, quite bravely. For many I imagine it will prove an illuminating read, for others a validating one.