I believe that gender identities should be respected by everyone. Whether a person is homosexual, heterosexual, or trans-gendered, he or she has a right to live life the way he or she feels comfortable.

Like every family, mine is full of a wide variety of personalities. Some of us have bad tempers, others are great with tools, while others excel in school. However, one of my family members tends to stand out among the rest of us, but it isn't because of a personality issue. My Aunt on my mom's side of the family was born my uncle. She decided she wanted to be a woman long enough ago that I only remember her as my aunt. sadly enough, that is not how the majority of my family sees it.

When we attend family parties, it is pretty common to hear the family refer to my aunt by her birth name rather than the one she prefers to go by now, even though legally she changed it. It also is not uncommon to hear them refer to her as a him instead. As far as I can tell, she is used to this behavior and politely chooses to ignore it. Still though, I would understand why it would bother her. It really seems unfair that her personal life choices are not being respected by her own family.

My biggest issue with this situation was a conversation I had with my mom, her sister, one night. My mother was raised in a christian home, and has very old traditional believes. I remember her saying to me one night that there had to be something wrong with my aunt for her to want to live the way she does. She basically implied that my aunt had some kind of mental health problem and that was why she wanted to be a woman instead of staying a man.

As a psychology major, I have heard quite a bit about mental health problems, and I know for a fact there has been a history in my family. However, it is depression that runs in my family, not being trans-gendered. I thought about what she said and simply could not understand why she considered being trans-gendered was a mental health issue in the first place. My aunt is a very happy woman. She spends time with the family, has a job and a couple hobbies she really enjoys. She has always contributed to society, she used to work with people on parole. She has to children, both of whom are adults now, but I have never seen her treat them with anything but love and respect. She also loves me and my mom, plus her two brothers. So what's wrong with that? I think she is a wonderful person and deserves to have the respect of everyone she meets, reguardless of her gender identity.

I don't just write this for my aunt. I want everyone like her to be treated with respect because there is absolutely nothing wrong with being trans-gendered. People of every gender are capable of love, and happiness. Just like they are capable of being hurt by the lack of respect shown to them by others. We should make an effort as humans to see people as they really are, just people. Not a race, or a gender. #write4good