(no subject)

[elainegrey]

Today is the Transgender Day of Remembrance and the year anniversary of Christine's surgery. She's doing very well, and saw her surgeon yesterday for a year check up. The joy i feel for us is tempered by my awareness of how many individuals suffer, caught between their authentic self and the demands of cis-privilege and hetero-privilege in the dominant culture. I will never forget the years when Christine decided she would not share her authentic self but would conform: the self-censored-self is a walking murder-suicide. I imagine such existence is pervasive. I know that this sort of repression of authentic self isn't limited to the transgender experience as literature describes the crucible experience of all sorts of people breaking from the demands of expectation and freeing themselves. (The literal suicide at the end of The Awakening comes to mind.)

I am aware of how blessed we are to have a "happy ending" for our story. Yesterday evening was a delight of reading through the catalog of the Gauguin exhibit after an indulgent dinner at Trader Vic's, accompanied by an impulse purchase of "Aloha Hawaii" Harry Kaapui and His Royal Polynesians and an hour of Gauguin and Tahiti themed Youtube videos.

Comments

[amaebi]

I am so very glad for Christine and her expanded life, and for your joy with her. :)

Also, to know a little of your story.