Transitioning and the Call to Love
Jan Gabriel M. Castañeda If you search for “transition” on Google, it actually gives a specific definition for gender transition: to “ adopt permanently the outward or physical characteristics of the gender one identifies with, as opposed to those associated with one's birth sex .” It’s an incomplete definition, of course: it’s not just outward characteristics that change. Neither are they always the most important changes which that assume such changes happen at all: being transgender doesn’t always mean having extreme discomfort with the body you’re born with, as we’ll talk about later. But transitioning, in whatever form it takes, does mean a change that radically alters an individual. Many transgender people, very appropriately, refer to this as a “journey”. While we are talking about transgender people specifically, it’s helpful to note that every person “transitions” at many points in their lives. We transition when we grow up and take on new responsibilities. We transition w
