Existing comment:
Not Checking the Boxes
Sometimes gender isn't revealed at birth.
Ryan was born intersex. Growing up, he was called by a name traditionally given to girls. But he adopted his name because he felt he possessed "a girl body and a boy brain." He never performed activities expected of a girl, which made him an outcast in his social circles. Sports became an important outlet for self-expression, especially softball.
In 2014, after decades of struggling with his gender identity, he legally changed his name to Ryan and transitioned to male.
Ryan's story shows how checking boxes as male or female is limited. Those boxes could never fully capture the complex realities of one's gender and sexuality. |