He vs. She

I have already mentioned that I grew up in a religious household, and that I am 100% a she. However, as I grew up, I began to make friends who were transgender. My mom didn’t teach me what it meant to be trans, if anything she tried to hide that side of the world from me as much as she could. The only information I had about the LGBTQ+ community was that they were going to hell.

I feel like growing up with these belief systems might be correlated with my frequent tendency to use the wrong pronouns when talking to/about trans people. Don’t get me wrong, I have no hate towards trans people nor do I align myself with my mother’s belief that they will be sent straight to hell. However, I strongly believe that growing up sheltered to the trans world is part of the reason I accidentally misgender people.

Sometimes, even if someone tells me which pronouns they prefer, I will mess up. It’s never intentional, it always just seems like that is the way my brain was programmed. This is definitely something I have been trying to work on, but rewiring something that you have been hearing since you were born is a long process that I have just barely started.