I happened upon and watched part of a documentary on TV last
night
about a transgender beauty pageant in Thailand, I think it was called
the Miss International Queen contest. It was interesting to see so many
men who transition into beautiful women. Their stories told in the
documentary were sometimes heart wrenching and at others hard to
figure. But in every case there seemed to be an anxiety and insecurity,
well deserved in a world that is mostly hostile to sex changes. To show
the world is right the winner was from Thailand.
What I wondered when watching is what would life be like for those
transgender contestants when they were old and did not have their
beauty as a defense for their uncomfortable position in life as humans
who were so uncomfortable as males that they felt the need to become
women. As an old man I know life is not so easy when one ages. It must
be far more difficult for the transgender person. When physical beauty
gone, is the transgender person is disarmed somewhat against an often
hostile world of non transgender persons?
I think one problem for old transgenders is that the society in which
they life often do not provide the kind of old age programs that
straight elderly people have. Too, I wonder if there is an
understanding about how their body ages differently than non
transgender people. I suspect they face discrimination from providers
who are available to help them, making them a second in line person for
social services for the aged. Do medical insurance companies and
government programs exclude transgender services from their coverage?
If so, then the transgender will probably not seek treatments for the
common old age afflictions that, left untreated, can lead to an earlier
death.
Also, what about the isolation effect? In the documentary many of the
transgender contestants had boy friends or husbands who were enamored
with them. But later in life when the beauty is gone, will there be
more separations and divorces than in the straight old age population?
Too, will they have family support? Pretty young transgenders are more
equipped to handle adversity than old ones. With many family members
turning against the transgender family member, there will undoubtedly
be more isolation of the transgender from family than occurs in the old
age population at large.
The transgender beauty pageant documentary was interesting, but I
wonder if an even more interesting one would be the less sexy one on
the fate of old aged transgenders. It's a subject that I have not seen
addressed in the media.
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