by Gina Bennett

Created on: August 27, 2010

Transexual travel issues are all to common in the community I belong to. Being a transexual Male to Female myself, this impacts me directly. I have friends in the United States that I would like to visit and in May of last year while I was still in what is known as "boy mode", I flew down to visit my friends for a month. It was the most wonderful month I've had in a while and provided me escape and new places to see. Travelling is one of my passions. I wish to see all that I can see and experience all I can in this short life. Alas, I am no longer able to travel outside of my own country until I am post operative. Why? Because I am not allowed to change my gender marker on my passport until that point, so it will show me as legally male.

This presents a problem for a lot of us. We could run into a border guard who decides he doesn't like us and wishes to class us as terrorists, or is simply just transphobic and decides to turn us away at the border. I wish I could go visit my friends freely, and I know they would like me to visit, but even with documentation from a doctor known as a carry letter, I am not guaranteed passage. The carry letter is just a piece of paper from a doctor appointed to deal with gender issues that states you are under medical supervision for gender issues, are being closely monitored and is simply a request (not a demand) that you be treated as the gender you identify as. No one actually has to abide by this if they so wish. A lot of us travel internationally for surgeries we may medically need, for electrolysis or laser hair removal, for voice training and most of us spend hundreds if not tens of thousands of dollars in order to deal with the crappy hand life has dealt us. Not being able to travel like a normal person may impede the process of finally being able to feel comfortable and free with ourselves, which is all that a lot of us ask.

It can be incredibly stressing to have someone judge you based on one little letter on a piece of ID and say "You're less than a person, and therefore you have no rights or opinions. Go home, you're not allowed." If you don't think these things happen, I urge you to go out and actually make friends with a TS (transexual) person and learn from watching and life experience. You'll be amazed at the judgement and harassment we incur while travelling.

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