Dressed in black combat boots, black leggings with white cat faces on them, and a black “Deep Purple and Alice Cooper” concert T-shirt, Evelyn M. leans into the wall and slowly sinks down to the ground where she currently squats.  She stretches her left leg out in front of her, leaving her right knee propped up, so that she can lean her right elbow on her knee, which in turn allows her chin to rest on her right wrist.  Is Evelyn a typical high school girl?  No, she’s a little bit different.  And not just in the way that lots of teenagers wants to be different and unique.  As she describes it to me, it is also both “difficult and painful.”

In her sophomore year, Evelyn came out as being transgender.  She said, “It’s not like one day you wake up and realize you aren’t who others think you are.  You realize little things and end up realizing that you’re meant to be someone else.  I just never saw myself becoming a man.”  She revealed that she denied it when she first realized it, saying  “It was like I was afraid of it,” but gradually she came to accept her true identity.  

She remembers giving her mom a letter as her mom was leaving for work.  After coming home from work, Evelyn and her parents sat down to talk about it.  She said, “They didn’t understand at first, and they said hurtful things.  Now, they understand. I’m very lucky.”  

Evelyn explains, “A lot of people are supportive.  I probably have more supporters than enemies.”

When I asked about her enemies, she said “I just don’t think they understand.  They just don’t want to accept things they haven’t seen before.  They think they have to accept something they know nothing about.  People will always have their opinions.”

She added, “People don’t see me as normal, and I just want to be normal.  I don’t want to be treated differently.  It’s painful, but you have to be there for yourself.  You have to make yourself happy.  If you don’t, then eventually you’re not even going to have yourself.”  

Luckily, I’ve noticed that Evelyn has friends that seem to be a really good support group.  “Yeah, I have friends that I can go to when I feel like I have no one else to go to.”  

When I asked about if there were ever days that were harder than others, she told me, “There are always moments where you don’t understand your purpose.  You just have to trust yourself.  It’s really hard because when I feel happy, I’m the most vulnerable.”  

I wondered how her situation affected her social life, and her answer was heartbreaking.  “It makes going on dates hard.  It’s been three years since I’ve had a date, and it just seems like, in my opinion, nobody wants me.  It’s because I don’t have the right looks.”  

Evelyn’s advice to those who are on the LGBTQ+ scale is simple, but meaningful. She says, “Do whatever you want.  Make yourself happy.  Stay true to yourself and don’t panic.  If someone gets in your way, just push past and keep walking.”  

She reminded me again that she felt very lucky, and when I asked how someone going through as much as she is could possibly feel lucky, she told me, “People have it way worse than me.  I mean, I’m not dead.”  

Unfortunately, Evelyn is right.  According to a 2012 study done by the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, an estimated 41% of all transgender people have tried to commit suicide.  In the same study, over 50% of all American transgender people have been harassed, bullied, physically assaulted, or sexually assaulted. In 2016, 27 transgender people were murdered in the U.S according to the GLAAD foundation.    With these horrifying statistics, we, as Americans, need to research things if we aren’t informed.  This is 2017.  As the world is progressing, we need to be more accepting of everyone, especially transgender individuals.  As Evelyn sums it up, “[We] are just trying to fix a mistake.  [We have been] born wrong.”