It's been a while since I've posted. Short answer, I'm busy. We just passed National Coming Out Day again, so I wanted to touch base about that. I've been out for about 25 years. I also "look" suitably gay, so I never really come out anymore. While it has gotten easier to come out since I first took the plunge, there are still folks who, for various reasons, continue to hide their sexuality or gender identity. This is perfectly understandable. It is still scary. There is still hatred. People still get fired, kicked out of housing, or disowned by their families. But please also know that there is also a great deal of support out there. If you are struggling with sexuality or gender identity, therapy can be really helpful to work towards coming out. Being authentic to yourself is a beautiful thing. If you need some therapeutic support around coming out, or any other issues around gender or sexuality (or most anything really) please feel free to contact me to set up an appointment.

901-486-5745

kthiestand@yahoo.com

When did we invent gender identities?

I found this quote on Facebook. Lately we've been hearing about all of the "new" gender identities, as if we are suddenly creating all of them. Fact is, they've existed since we've existed, but it's only now that we are recognizing that gender is more than man/woman or even trans/cis. At this point there are quite a few gender identities that are being used, and sometimes I get a little confused trying to understand exactly how an identity is different from all of the others.

The diagram above shows some of the most common ones, but there are lots of others. I'm not going to try to explain them all here, but I did want to share the initial quote and give a bit of an explanation. I do think it is important to acknowledge that gender is (and has always been) so much broader than was recognized; now we just have the language to describe it.