I am of Baptist persuasion as well and whilst there are a number of families who don't accept anything different from the 'normal', I believe if God makes people the way they are and can love them the way they are, why can we not accept that. It's society and man's interpretations of any book of religion that causes the problems.
Some time ago I wrote a blog on another forum which I think is relevant to this thread. I didn't realise until I met the person I wrote about, the agonies they go through. It is horrendous for them personally and it doesn't help if they are looked down upon by society. I have also heard interviews with others who have undergone surgery to make changes and they are still not happy. Whether it's anything to do with the physical side I don't know but one army major lost his family when he told them how he felt, he went through all the processes but at the end of the interview, he was asked if he regretted it and he said 'yes'.
When blogging, my daughter has given me inspiration many, many times and one such story, inspired by a past friend of my daughter. The 'past friend' isn't due to a falling out or anything personal between them, it's because of the friend's journey into another life. The names are fictitious but the people are real.
"My daughter first met Katherine at an agricultural college. The college catered for farming, fishery and other countryside pursuits training and like the course for Countryside Ranger training, my daughter and Katherine were students there. Katherine however was to be known later as Archie because she belonged to that group of people of muddled gender, she was a male trapped in a female body. Psychologically she was a male and after years of deliberation decided that she would shed the femininity side and become a male. I had only heard of people like that and like many others, I felt a little apprehensive of the thought of it and by the time I met her, she was in the process of becoming male.
It wasn't an easy journey for her and one which wasn't being taken lightly. Once the process started, she only had two years to change her mind. That was the time she had been given to live as a man, in every way. She was now a 'he' and his name was Archie. He was a lovely person, very interesting to talk to, the big difficulty was remembering to address him as he or him or his. Of course being at college also meant he had to use the 'gents' loos which freaked the fishery students out because physically he was still in a female body.
He did look like a man, in fact although quite young, he looked much older and actually there wasn't really much femininity in his looks or manners other than still having normal female attributes. The body changes would all be scheduled for change under the knife. Graduation was the last time we saw Archie, he already had the first in a series of operations to change his body and the removal of his breasts had hit him harder psychologically much more than he had expected. He went through a long time of depression. He had decided to start a completely new life and shake off the old one by removing as much as he could of outside reminders of his past life. So he just disappeared completely, giving up all friends in the process.
I only met Archie once when he stayed the weekend with us and I've thought about him from time to time. We hear about people like him and dismiss the thought with sympathy, disgust or disdain. It's easy to judge when they are strangers but when you've seen the agony they go through, you can only try to understand but you never will completely because you've never been there. There's the thought of giving up the body you were born with and in Archie's case, he thought it would make the journey easier by giving up friends – both of these I think are beyond imagination. I know how I feel at losing even one friend,whatever the reason, but to give them all up deliberately as an easier option to risk seeing friends embarrassed and not being able to handle or accept the situation, or hearing the whispered remarks or seeing the nudges. It's difficult to disappear completely and we have heard he is living and working in the other side of the country from us. No doubt his friends could trace him if they really put their mind to it but will probably respect his wishes and privacy and hope just to hear, from time to time, that's he's ok. The journey for him would have been arduous enough psychologically without interference and if he wishes to re-appear again, I'm sure he'll find a way".
I also knew someone many years ago, a friend and a very nice young man and he too had psychological problems with being of mixed gender, but we were too young and naive to understand so I would think that any suicide attempt would come from an inner battle more so than outside influence.
