“I was born a girl, but I want to be a boy.”
I never actually said those words out loud, but I thought them a lot. Between the ages of 9 and 15, I did not want to be a girl. I wanted to be a boy. In my mind, I wasn’t fit to be a girl. I wasn’t pretty (or so I thought). I enjoyed sports and rough-housing. I was stronger than the guys my age and more drawn to being a leader.
According to the religion and culture I knew, being a boy made so much more sense. My religion said that only men could be leaders, and my culture told me that women should be beautiful. Since I was a strong leader and didn’t think I was beautiful, I logically thought, “Perhaps I should not be a woman.”
This is an excerpt from a recent column written by my guest on today’s Theology Thursday.
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