Ladies and gentlemen is a common phrase used to greet large audiences of people,
much like yourself.
But how can 3 words, and only 3 words be entirely oppressive
towards a whole group of people?
My name is Charlie Hobman, and today it is my aim to shed light
on that very question, and many others just like it.
From the moment I was born I was raised as a female.
But they got it wrong.
I am male, I identify entirely as male,
and I've always been male.
To most people this is completely confusing.
How is it possible for this person to go from being Samantha Kate Hobman
to being Charles Francis Hobman?
How is that even possible?
The answer is simpler than you think.
I am female to male transgender.
From a young age I knew I was different.
This sounds incredibly cliche,
but it's also incredibly accurate.
Whilst my sister was inside playing with dolls,
watching High School Musical, trying on my mom's wedding dress,
I was outside riding my bike, climbing trees, falling out of the trees,
catching lizards and whatever I could get my hands on.
More often than not, I would come inside with scratches, bruises, grazes,
but I didn't care.
That's how I was expressing myself.
I was happy to express myself in that way.
At this point in time I had no idea
what gender identity or what gender roles were.
I didn't know what was masculine or what was feminine.
I was doing what made me happy.
Now I must say, at this point, that I don't believe gender roles
should be enforced in society, but at that time,
what I was doing, was considered masculine.
And as I grew up, it got harder.
I kept to myself because I felt like I was lying to people
by presenting myself as female.
When I made friends,
I felt I was keeping my whole life away from them,
because I wasn't ready to admit to myself or to others, who I really was.
But things have changed.
I came out. I shed that skin and set fire to the façade.
I came out and haven't looked back since.
I am able to stand before you today and say, "This is who I am,
and this is who I'm going to be, this is where I've been,
and this is where I'm going to be next."
So let's talk about technicalities.
First of all, sex, gender identity, and gender expression
are 3 entirely different things that overall make up your identity.
Sex is what you hide under your clothes, your private parts.
Gender identity is what you identify as.
As I've told you, I identify as male.
Gender expression is how you outwardly express your gender.
So, before I came out I was presenting myself as female to people.
People would perceive me as female because I would wear feminine clothing
and present myself in a feminine manner.
Now I present myself in masculine manner,
therefore making my gender expression masculine.
So these 3 things come together, to make your gender identity.
There are a few things that we need to talk about.
A few things everyone needs to know
regardless of whether you're transgender or not.
First of all, transgender people have the right
to use whichever bathroom they prefer.
There is no law dictating which bathroom we can and cannot use.
What do we need to happen?
I am afraid of a lot of things.
I am afraid of going to a workplace and being discriminated.
I am afraid of telling people who I am.
I'm getting better at it, but it's still difficult for me.
So how can we spread awareness?
How can we make it more possible for people to understand and accept
people like me into their community?
Because that's what needs to happen.
I think a good step towards that is an appropriate representation
in sexual education at schools.
Without it, kids won't understand or know what being transgender is.
I have come out to so many people who have turned around and said,
"I don't understand what you're talking about.
Please explain to me."
And I'll happily explain but it shocks me how so few people in this country
[do] understand it.
The problem isn't within ourselves,
it's within the sexual education system.
We have the opportunity to teach students about who we are and what we stand for.
This doesn't just add towards a more accepting and peaceful community.
This means that people who are questioning their own gender and their own issues
will be able to stand forward and get rid of that uncertainty
that I was missing.
I didn't have that opportunity to know what I was feeling.
I didn't know what it was called.
That uncertainty kept me within my shell and it kept me hiding away from who I am.
With appropriate representation in sexual education classes,
people who are questioning their gender can freely think about it,
because it's something that people should explore,
whether you identify as transgender or not you should explore
your gender and gender expression.
Self-discovery is such an important thing that I don't understand
why it's not enforced more into our school society.
We've come a long way.
50 years ago I wouldn't be able to be here now.
I wouldn't be able to stand in front of you.
As a community we are able to consolidate, form a group,
bond together to get, not just as trans people,
but you involved, too.
Us as a community.
We are able to come together and fight for what we believe in,
we can stand up and say, "We exist. We have always existed.
And we always will exist.
And there is no way we can be erased from society."
As "Time" put it, we're at the transgender tipping point.
We are moving forward and we are doing it for humanity.
I want to be able to walk down the street.
I want to be able to walk into a men's bathroom
without being yelled at.
I want equal rights.
I do not want to be oppressed.
How can we do this if we don't work together?
Us trans people are making a lot of noise. Which is good.
We are telling people this is who we are.
This is who we authentically are, something we cannot change,
something that has been wired into our genetics.
That isn't going to change.
What can change, people's outlook on us,
people's perspective.
People's perspective on gender roles in general,
like it shouldn't be a thing for it to be weird
for a man to wear a dress.
It needs to be something that is cherished and accepted.
I can tell you from my own personal experience, coming out is really scary.
It can be made a lot easier if accurate representation in media existed.
The media, up until now, is mostly comprised -
for the transgender side of media - is most comprised
of using transgender people as a satirical device.
They think it's funny.
Using slurs.
Making it into a joke.
That's not what we're about.
We are not here to be laughed at.
We are human beings.
Like I said earlier, ladies and gentlemen,
is an oppressive term
because gender identity is not a straight line,
it's not male and female at either end.
It is a whole entire spectrum.
There are so many different gender options.
Facebook alone offers 71 different gender variants.
A couple of them:
male, female, genderless - which is where you don't identify as any gender,
or gender fluid - where you can transition between both male and female
or a third gender.
There are many more but it is something that people need to learn more about
in order to understand.
It is my goal, and I hope you will join me on this journey,
to keep moving forward.
In the past century we have come so far that it is beyond the point
that I'm able to come in front of you
and list all of the things that have happened
that's been good.
But I can tell you right now, there's still so much that we can do.
So really, the question is, when are you going to do it?
(Applause)