💬 Off-Topic How did you first find out that trans people exist?

[UsedUp]

The concept was present in films.

Kiss of the Spiderwoman (1985)
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything!, Julie Newmar (1995)
The Birdcage (1996)

Presumably others I can't remember because it was an insignificant joke character or perhaps just a sight gag rather than something important to the plot (even if still played for a laugh).

First IRL troon sighting was early 2000s while I was in the military: a civilian government employee at the smoke pit outside a maintenance/supply warehouse. I was pretty flat/blank at that point and it became apparent he had mistaken my lack of visible disgust as something other than just being non-reactive to horrifying things.

I don't consider the Bacha Bazi trans, but if you do, I guess technically that was earlier. Kinda sucked when they cracked down on the oh-so tragic friendly fire incidents, but there are a lot of ways people who need to can die in the sandbox. Allegedly. In minecraft. Bassethound.

my origins of trannydom in 3 parts

 

[GAY DEAD MUPPET GANGBANG]

I remember Ace Ventura, but that was played for yuks and I don't think I ACTUALLY understood what the Ray Finkle character was. I think my first actual exposure was when I was still a kid, just a little later. My family and I went to a Golden Corral for breakfast after church services, and I remember the server taking us to our seats and the next table over there was what I now understand was a very obvious and poorly passing old tranny. My father refused to sit down, had words with the server that I do not remember only that he sounded pissed off, and then we were seated on the other side of the restaurant.

I remember my parents exchanging words in that hasty sorta hushed whisper-with-your-hand-up way that people used to do thinking kids couldn't hear it afterwards. Later on (as in, a couple of years later) they ran that morning by me again I guess because I was old enough to "get it" and I've been wary of trannies ever since.

Good parenting.

 

[Edgelord Vampire]

This post ended up being a bit of a power level but fuck it, I'm sharing anyway since it might be entertaining enough.

Likely from movies or whatever for me, though I'm sure I've heard a good number of he-she jokes from Dad. Cuz I knew something like it existed but didn't know fully what it was.

I vaguely remember stumbling across an artist on DeviantART announcing that they were a tranny and I commented something along the lines of naïve yet neutral support; then snapping at someone for whining about me using "tranny" in my comment cuz "it's offensive"--mostly me saying that I didn't know that and was just trying to be nice. I was like 12-13 at the time.

Then the mid-2010's happened and I was hella skeptical of the community and didn't appreciate the constant language policing.
Unfortunately found myself in a friend group where my 17 year-old ass would be scolded by women in their mid-late 20's for saying that "non-binary doesn't exist; you're either trans or a snowflake".
These are the same people that completely casted me aside after saying that rapists deserve to be raped in prison by Big Bubba. LMAO

When I hit my early 20's, I unfortunately fell for the shit and even identified as a TIF, then later non-binary.
Ironically that took place during the time my mental health was at its worst.
Through recovery I've gained back a lot of the stances I had a decade ago but much more staunch.
Also I've always been non-conforming anyway and I'm just fine with keeping it that way.

I see trannies fucking everywhere due to being around the art spaces and alternative scenes (can't have shit in Detroit); and I'm getting increasingly sick of it all by the day.

Seen a few in the wild, all of 'em were greasy, fat, or both.
The one that threw me off the most was a man working at a local grocery store wearing a dress that you would typically see a little girl wear--shit triggered a "fight or flight" response in my brain and I was left heavily disturbed and thinking that he needs his hard drive checked.

 

[ZsaZsaBinks]

Oh yeah, I remember her being interviewed on Newsnight or The South Bank Show or some other evening current affairs thing. It was a lot of "I was bullied for being a lesbian, but now I'm a straight man everything is hunky dory".

Her channel isn’t there anymore, but I found some fan videos of her. Many of them were posted over five years ago, when she was still young and cute. But testosterone ruined her appearance:

Spoiler: NSFL

(I thought Mac Miller was dead.)

 

[KiwiFuzz2]

My mom worked with a tranny in the 80s and she said "He's a man who believes he's a woman." She described him as a pitiable creature.

Proto peak trans: There was an article in the paper about a man who had a sex change but he was married to a woman, and it made no sense to me why a man would do that. I knew lesbians existed, but why a man would become a "lesbian" made no sense, and still doesn't. I was maybe 10 at the time.

 

[GAY DEAD MUPPET GANGBANG]

Her channel isn’t there anymore, but I found some fan videos of her. Many of them were posted over five years ago, when she was still young and cute. But testosterone ruined her appearance:

Spoiler: NSFL

Ver archivo adjunto 8160623
(I thought Mac Miller was dead.)

I love a fitting comeuppance.

 

[Online Fossil]

I liked watching all those Entertainment Tonight type celebrity news shows as a kid so I want to say it was Cher’s kid transitioning. Back then it seemed like some rare mental illness and okay, it’s weird but who cares.

Then I was on Tumblr in the early 2010s and ideas like non-binary metastasized from “wacky tumblrina thing” to mainstream so quickly. Looking back I’m kind of confused on how it even happened.

 

[ZsaZsaBinks]

My mom worked with a tranny in the 80s and she said "He's a man who believes he's a woman." She described him as a pitiable creature.

Proto peak trans: There was an article in the paper about a man who had a sex change but he was married to a woman, and it made no sense to me why a man would do that. I knew lesbians existed, but why a man would become a "lesbian" made no sense, and still doesn't. I was maybe 10 at the time.

That was one of the things that peaked me at trans. Even though HSTS types aren’t sane, it made more sense to me that gays would transition to look like straight people of the opposite sex. But a straight person becoming a gay trans person was too weird for me.

I love a fitting comeuppance.

I know some TIFs age better than others on testosterone, but that hormone certainly wasn’t her friend. It’s funny how she got famous for looking like a boy band member, because her current appearance makes teen girls run for the hills. (Side note but I should not have done Mac Miller like that.)

 

[Manly_Brony]

A short, fat, balding man in my old neighborhood wore female clothing and make up in public. Nobody really gave a damn because he wasn't obnoxious like modern trannies. He lived quietly, held a job and probably used the correct bathroom.

 

[Palantir]

A man tried to groom me in a video game, I was around 15 at the time.

Back then it wasn't discord, it was XFire.

Extremely strange. My only memories of this person is that they were about 30-40, a teacher (or maybe ex) and discovered they were trans while hiking a mountain and nearly dying.

This was in a game called Project Reality, a big mod for BF2 and effectively it's own game. The team went onto develop Squad.

 

[KiwiFuzz2]

That was one of the things that peaked me at trans. Even though HSTS types aren’t sane, it made more sense to me that gays would transition to look like straight people of the opposite sex. But a straight person becoming a gay trans person was too weird for me.

I don't want to wander off topic for the thread, but I guess it's because I was raised in an age where girls were taught they could be or do anything and there was always half the girls who were "feminine" and I wasn't but breaking down what femininity meant could go a few ways.

I was in the era of "Alanna: The First Adventure" and Tasha Yar and Elvira and Sally Ride and Margaret Thatcher and other women who were active and witty and sometimes sexy (or not, whatever) and who liked men (or not, whatever) who had real power that wasn't just about pwning the mens but was about having their own agency and authority.

Then also to see friends sell themselves out for reasons that I thought were bad. Okay, you like the dick, but turning some shitbag's dick into the center of your universe is disappointing.

Then also having gay friends where they could be effeminate but also show some agency.

Less of a "Do you want the chicken or the steak?" and more of a buffet of options for men and women.

I'm drunk and bullshitting, but AGPs are more about forcing society to relate to them whereas HSTS are more about adapting themselves to fit the expectations of society.

 

[Spangled Drongo]

Probably Tumblr... or dad's friend having a midlife crisis troon-out arc right around the same time. Then a male neckbeard "friend" of mine I kind of just tolerated suddenly announcing that he "felt like a girl" inside and wanted to be called "Jane" instead of "John", and by that point I'd realised that it was making no sense and on the road to peaking.

 

[BetterFuckChuck]

I used to watch Sinatra Says and No Bullshit back in 7th grade and I remember Sinatra making quite a few videos on Riley Whats-his-face. That’s how I found out about troons. I had an earlier incident with a tranny cashier at Target when I was about 10 but I couldn’t comprehend that idea back then so I don’t think it really counts. I thought he was just a spy or something lmao

he's back btw

 

[so valid uwu]

I grew up watching jerry springer and maury after school and during summer break so I knew what they were when I was in elementary school. I didn't really understand what "gender dysphoria" was until I was in high school when a faggy guy I was friendly with trooned out. We had a few classes together and he told me a little bit about the medical things and the cliche "I always felt like a girl" kinda stuff.

 

[Ten Different Dudes]

As a kid people liked saying 'your mom is gay,' and somehow 'your granny's a tranny' got passed around and parroted by me. I had no idea what it meant though. I learned about transgender people through some video arguing with Ben Shapiro, then I watched some Contrapoints videos. At the time, I rationalized they were mentally ill people that could be treated through transition/acting as if they are the sex they transition to. I'm glad I didn't voice this because it would've tanked my social standing lmao. Over time I became super supportive of transgender people then eventually became disillusioned. Kiwifarms called to me like the green goblin mask, you could say.

 

[Caesar]

Probably from stealing one of my dads copies of Bizzare magazine in the 90s

I pretty vividly remember a piece they did on Buck Angel but this was prob 2002-2004 so i was well aware by then.

 

[Wuhan Wet Market]

I saw a video on YouTube yesrs ago about transgender and was really confused why someone would willingly humiliate themselves like this.

 

[The Decimator]

Chaz Bono was the first one I heard of

 

[яндекс]

When I was about 6 or 7 years old, my grandma took me for a haircut. This was decades ago. I don't know why she didn't cut my hair because she always used to do it. I guess it was part of growing up.

The local hair stylist was closed for renovations, so we had to go to the next one. There wasn't anybody inside, so we waited a bit. It was all fine until I saw LA CREATURA approaching in the distance:

It looked, and I shit you not, like today's Donald John Trump, 45th & 47th president of the United States of America, but with long hair tied on a pony tail.

That wasn't too odd for me. What shook me with a mental flashbang was its attire: Tight black leggings hugging that porridge of an ass. High heels. A sheer black blouse with a black bra underneath, and long ass fingernails.

The creature entered the premises, and with a very, very lazy falsetto asked my grandmother about the haircut I was getting. I had no idea what the fuck was going on, and then the haircut proceeded.

It didn't terrify me. I went away unmolested. The haircut was alright, I think (same bowl cut I was getting since being born). But the experience was very notable for my child brain. I didn't know that grown men could just wear women's clothes like that! Oh, what a crazy world, right?

It wasn't the worst experience I had while having a haircut as a kid, either. On another occasion, a trailer trash bitch stabbed me in the back of an ear with the fucking scissors.

Never saw that one individual again. There were rumours about a fist fight, but I didn't care enough to look it up. After that, I think I only ever saw 3 or 4 trannies in my life: 3 prostitutes far away on the streets of a big city and another one on a bus ride. Last one looked like the source image of "El Perro Rabioso" 'jak, with fake tits and dressed like a prostitute... So, 4 prostitutes.

I think I've avoided direct close encounters with trannys since then. #Blessed #TTD

 

[HandsomeDan]

I knew there such a thing as a trans (a step up from a man just wearing a dress) but it was not until about 2005 I guess when this tv series "Trans Generation" started being shown and we watched it as a joke, but that was when I first saw real physically mutilated trans people. It was still such a rarity though, I also remember on a College ski trip stooping in Trinidad Colorado to got to the hospital where they did the operations at the time so we could laugh at it. Then it was called "sex change".

Little did we know at the time how years later all of this would explode.