Boy, (Un)Interrupted
Transpinoy Rising!
By Sass Rogando Sasot
PUBLISHED: OCTOBER 2009

BIG WORDS
MASTECTOMY Removal of the breasts TAH-BSO Total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy; removal of uterus, fallopian tubes, and ovaries PHALLOPLASTY Construction of a penis METADOIPLASTY Alternative to phalloplasty, where the clitoris is released from its position and moved forward to closely approximate the position of an ordinary penis. Sometimes the urethra is also lengthened to end at the tip of the neophallus. It must be noted that the clitoris and penis are developmentally homologous organs. For more info on FTM surgeries, visit Wikipedia entry on FTM Surgeries at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_reassignment_ surgery_female-to-male.

In October 22, 2007, deciding on the Mely Silverio case, the Supreme Court of the Philippines decided that courts cannot change the gender on the birth certificates of transsexual people without a law allowing it. This kind of law might still take years ­ or an entire lifetime - to be passed here. 

It must be noted that Spain, our colonizer for almost three hundred years and whose Catholic indoctrination destroyed our pre-colonial respect for and accommodation of gender diversity, passed a non-sex reassignment surgery dependent Gender Recognition Law in 2006. Sans this legislation, James’s Philippine identity documents will continue to use his female legal identity.  “And this will put me in a lot of embarrassing situations,” James sighed. 

THE BOY, UNINTERRUPTED

The once critically depressed James now knows no regret and has nothing but gratitude for the changes that happened to him. “I am very satisfied and happy with my life. I am more productive with my daily tasks, I have more self-confidence, and my social life drastically improved,” he affirmed.

In time, he would like to go back to the Philippines, and hopefully have a family of his own. He is currently single, but he doesn’t think finding a relationship will be as problematic as it is for Filipina transsexual women. “Well, it can’t be that problematic for me,” he said, “If I’m not choosy, and if I’m not torpe (shy), I can probably just be with any girl who shows interests. But once I overcome that part of being torpe, I am very romantic.”

Adventurous and an old-fashioned romantic, James loves giving surprises to his girl. He fondly recalled what happened to one of his dates: “I once asked a girl on our date - she’s not yet my girlfriend - to pick up the travel magazine, flip the page, and whatever the page says... we will go there.”   

Besides having a family of his own, one of the things that James is looking forward to is to start an online forum to support transpinoys who are struggling for information and resources.  He understands just how hard it is for men like him in the Philippines, where there’s not much information about transsexualism and female-to-male transitioning.  And to his fellow Filipino transmen, he has this encouraging message, “Don’t be afraid, and just be true to yourself. Remember: We only have one life to live.”

THE POETRY OF THE TRANSSEXUAL EXPERIENCE:
“SYA AY NAGING SYA”

The transsexual experience is often mocked – intentionally or unintentionally – by that tiring sensationalizing staple news tagline: “he becomes a she” or a “she becomes a he”.  Tagalog is one of those very few languages in the world that do not have gendered pronouns.  He, she, and it are just “Siya/Sya”.  Hence, he or she becoming or changing into another pronoun does not have an equivalent in Tagalog. It’s just “Sya becomes Sya (Sya ay naging Sya)”; and I feel that this is a better starting point in understanding, explaining, and reflecting on the transsexual experience than the Jekyll-and-Hide approach. James is not a she who became a he. James just became James and he continues to unfold to the outside world the reality contained inside him: “Sya ay naging sya at patuloy na nagiging sya ”. This is not superficial political correctness but a deep affirmation of an experience. 

Forcing transsexual people to conform to their sex assignment at birth is like forcing an apple seed to grow as an orange tree.  And just imagine all the energy wasted, the lives made miserable, and the relationships broken by simply exercising our ignorance and rejection of what people’s brains, hearts, and consciousness feel themselves to be.

Yes we may continue to assert the virtue and legitimacy of our ignorance by invoking the gospel of the genitalia and the dictatorship of the sex assignment at birth. We may even succeed in the process. But our success will be a Pyrrhic victory: Transsexual people, throughout the rest of their lives, will live unhappily in the hell of our ignorance and rejection and we continue to numb our ability to appreciate what Walt Whitman once said, “that all the things of the universe are perfect miracles, each as profound as any.”

During the height of the BB Gandanghari issue, a news writer once asked me what role social institutions should play in the lives of transsexual people. I find my answer, which wasn’t published, as a fitting end to this article: The role of social institutions – such as the family, the state, the church, and medical establishments - in everybody’s lives should be like the role the sun, the soil, the rain, and the wind play in the life of a seed. They are nourishing and nurturing agents to the outward healthy manifestation of the internal reality of the seed and not as dictators of what the seed should be.  They act not with oppressive action but with tender affection to the unique beauty the seed will share as it blossoms to this world. In facing another human being, whether a new-born child or a grown-up one, perhaps we must keep in mind that we don’t really know that person. This is not to invoke fears of the unfamiliar but to invite ourselves to live with a sustained and ever-sustaining warmth and joy of experiencing and appreciating each other’s unfolding again and again and again…

Sass Rogando Sasot a poet and transgender rights activist. She is the Liaison Officer and one of the founders of the Society of Transsexual Women of the Philippines (STRAP), the first and only transgender rights support and advocacy organization in the Philippines.