The Trans Person in the Waiting Room

A Throwback to 2019.

“The Elephant in the Room” is a popular phrase, but now there’s “the Trans person in the room” but unlike the Elephant, this one is used for literal reasons.

Sitting in a Sexual Health clinic for a walk-in appointment, waiting for someone to come and get me — I’m the only Masc/Trans Enby in the room. The clinic is run by women, the nurses are women, and every patient was a woman — but me.

I went because I needed an injection called Depo-Provera; it’s a contraception injection that is known for stopping periods, which is the main reason I use it. I suffer from chronic pain and Dysphoria thanks to shark week.

I was waiting for the nurse to call me in, and all that happened was people staring at me — waiting to see what I was going to do.

I get it, it’s a clinic that provides women’s health items and women’s contraception. But, the stares got worse.

The next thing I knew, someone asked a nurse why a Transgendered was in a Women’s Clinic… Last time I checked, everyone has sexual health — and although a clinic may specialise in Women’s health, that doesn’t change the fact that everyone else may need to use the service.

The nurse didn’t really do anything, she didn’t respond to the person but she did frown at me, then shrugged to the person who asked. It was tempting to ask: what’s the problem with me being here? But let’s be honest, it would’ve lead to much more abuse than I could currently handle.

Because of the woman’s discomfort in me being around, although I’d been waiting over an hour, unlike her who’d been there fifteen minutes, she got to have her treatment first.

I couldn’t afford to wait around any longer and had to bail.

I had to go without treatment because one person, initially, felt uncomfortable. And because that one person expressed their dislike of Trans people, the rest of the room ended up expressing the same… I went without treatment to appease ten cisgender people who couldn’t even say Transgender without ED on the end…

If you’re uncomfortable near me, sit away from me. But Trans people shouldn’t have to go without needed treatment because other people are uncomfortable with the fact we exist.

Sexual Health clinics need to work on their Trans inclusion because we need treatment just as much, and we shouldn’t have to go without because of exclusionists and transphobes.

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