As a trans person, I don’t believe that I was born trans. For me, it’s an identity that I took on later in life, when the discomfort with my assigned gender began to manifest more intensely. I don’t know if that discomfort was always present, but it’s not a requirement that it be there in order to be trans.

There are plenty of things we figure out about ourselves later in life. It doesn’t make them any less valid, honest, or important realizations.

The rights of transgender people should not rely on whether or not we were “born this way.”

The fact of the matter is, as human beings who are simply trying to live out our truths, we deserve dignity, respect, and equal treatment under the law, whether we realized we were trans at age three or age 73.