Member-only story
Why More People Are Coming Out as Trans in the Pandemic
Trans experiences of isolation reveal what it really takes to come out
It has been years since my egg cracked.
In community parlance, an “egg” refers to a transgender person who doesn’t quite yet realize they are trans. We “crack” when that first realization happens — oh wait! what if?…
Getting out of that shell takes work. I came out as nonbinary five years ago. I didn’t immediately claim the title trans, thanks to internalized transphobia. The process of setting offline boundaries on pronoun use took several years more. And it was only the isolation brought on by a global pandemic that finally allowed me to acknowledge my dysphoria and seek out gender-affirming health care.
This is not to say that the pandemic has been easy on trans people, or even on me personally. We experience higher rates of depression and anxiety, economic insecurity, and social isolation even during “good” times. We know that the consequences of pandemic isolation, schools closing, medical procedures postponed, job loss, and housing insecurity are disproportionately felt by trans people, especially trans youth and BIPOC trans folks.
I have struggled with my freelance income and mental health, as have many of the trans folks I…
