Gay trans man
Posted: Jacob Rostovsky. For some individuals, to be a transgender male someone who is assigned female at birth and identifies as male in this time is hard enough. But when you add in identifying as gay attracted to men and identifying as maleit can make life even more difficult. As a transgender gay male, I know this first hand.
As a therapist who has worked with many transgender men who also identify as gay, I know that it is common for gay trans men to experience a flooding of thoughts when being out in the gay male community. Some of these involve anxiety and fear, especially when going to bars and clubs. Most of these clients share the fear that not having a penis could put them in a precarious situation.
Their thoughts generally fall into the following themes:. These fears are not completely irrational and often come from previous negative experiences.
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Often these clients end up giving in to anxiety and cancelling their plans in order to stay home where they feel safe. Of course, this can lead to feelings of shame, envy toward friends and individuals who do get gay go out and enjoy themselvesand defeat. Let us take a moment to define envy as it will be used in gay article.
In a broader psychological sense, envy is a state of mind in which you experience yourself desiring the advantage or privilege that another individual, usually someone who you admire, has. This advantage is often granted from something the individual is born with, like a personality trait or physical part of the body.
In this article, I look at the relationship between transgender male individuals and their envy toward cisgender males and the many perceived advantages they have simply because they were born with a penis. These advantages could look like the ease to use the restroom without giving it a second thought, or more easily trans sexual relationships.
While subtle, this envy often occupies the mind for a great while and stays with the individual for a long period of time, often coming with the individual regardless of their current situation. Envy man to feelings of shame. Envy can be frustrating for an individual because quite often we admire the same people we are envious of.
When you are trans male and gay identified, this admiration could also be feelings of sexual attraction or romantic desire. When rejected by someone who you envy, it makes these feelings even more difficult to sit with. For transgender male individuals, gay identified or not, the negative symptoms of penis envy seem to develop rapidly.
These symptoms usually look like heightened feelings of anxiety and depression that prevent individuals from leaving the house and mimic the hyperarousal and fear states commonly seen in Trans. In the extreme stages, these feelings become panic. Being informed about this kind of thought process and how it shows man differently in people is extremely important.
Many gay transgender males feel envious of the freedom that being assigned male at birth offers a person. This feeling comes from a desire to experience the freedom to be in spaces that require a penis to fully let your guard down. Some trans males carry around a feeling of being less-than alongside the knowledge that they are not able to share a common connection with someone based on having the same genitals and understanding what it feels like to have them.
Transgender gay men are not the only type of gay man who experience this type of penis envy.