Who Am I ? Who I'm Not!

Who am I? I'm me, I'm a girl, I'm Amy.

But that's never enough is it? We rarely get the chance to define ourselves this simply. Details always seem to be required, and that's okay. So, buckle up peeps, here's who I am, and this is nothing like any TG story you ever heard.

First, let me start with a quote, a line from a song, from one of my favorite singer/songwriters Nanci Griffith, from the song 'It's a Hard Life':

'I was a child in the sixties, when dreams could be held through T.V.
With Disney and Cronkite and Martin Luther, and I believed, I believed, I believed....'

Well, I 'was' a child in the sixties, and I did have dreams, and I did believe, but I wasn't just any child. I was born with 2 very serious birth defects, one of which would have doctors telling me, and/or my parents I was going to die since the day I was born, and for the next 22 years. (it was around the time I was 22 that the docs stopped trying to predict my demise, mainly because they were always wrong, and because they underestimated my will to survive).

A congenital neuro-muscular birth defect, that ended up leaving me in a wheelchair, and defined every single day of my life, that's what I was born with. So basically I was born a perfectly healthy person, inside a very un-perfect body.
I was also born a girl, inside a very disabled 'boys' body, another birth defect that has just as profoundly defined every day of my life. I have lived with both of these birth defects for close to 50 years now, and trust me when I tell you, I had no choice in either, it's just who I am.

I don't need the medical profession, or anyone else, to recognize me, validate me, approve of me, confirm me, or even acknowledge me, because none of it will ever change who I am...

You probably don't need my approval either.. And that's okay, but if I can accept you, even if I disagree, why can't you accept me?  I'm the un-apologetic gimpy TG girl in the wheelchair, I'm real clear as to who I am. And I will not go away! I have as much right to my life as anyone else. And since I never wanted to kill anyone for who they were, but people have wanted to kill me for who I am, I think I have even more of a right to live, because let's face it, the haters are messing up the gene pool!

I'm not on a 'journey', I'm not 'transitioning' anything (except maybe my faith in the human race), I'm not 'confused', I'm not 'dysphoric', I'm not on some existential life affirming vacation, I'm not apologetic, I'm not ashamed, and I am not afraid. I am a girl, a girl with a handicap, but a girl none the less. And I will not go away!

I'm not a sexual pervert. As much as some haters want me to be, I'm not. Me being a girl has NOTHING to do with sex. In fact, I was monogamous and faithful to one person for 25 years, and still am, even though she died from cancer six years ago. It is interesting though, that most of the haters dwell on the sex part, which makes me wonder, who is the real deviant from the norm here.

So, who am I? I'm me, I'm a girl, I'm Amy.