This TED Talk features video creator and activist Jackson Bird, recorded live at TED Residency 2017.

Hi, I'm Jack and I'm transgender. Let me take a guess at some of the thoughts that might be running through your head right now.

Transgender, wait, does that mean that they're actually a man or actually a woman?

I wonder if he's had the surgery yet. Oh, now I'm looking at his crotch. Look to the right. That's a safe

place to look. Yes, I knew it. No real man has hips like those. My friend's daughter is transgender.

I wonder if they know each other. Oh my gosh, he is so brave. I would totally support

his right to use the men's bathroom. Wait, but how does he use the bathroom? How does he have sex?

Okay, okay, let's stop those hypothetical questions before we get too close from my comfort. I mean,

don't get me wrong. I did come here today to share my personal experience as being transgender,

but I did not wake up this morning wanting to tell an entire audience about my sex life.

I mean, of course, that's the problem with being trans, right?

People are pretty much always wondering how we have sex

and what kind of equipment we're working with below the belt.

Being trans is awkward. And not just because

the gender I was assigned at birth mismatches the one I really am. Being trans is awkward

because everyone else gets awkward when they're around me. You know, people who support me

and all other trans people wholeheartedly are often so scared to say the wrong thing,

so embarrassed to not know what they think they should,

that they never ask.

Part of what was so nerve-wracking about coming out as transgender

was knowing that people wouldn't know what I meant.

And when someone comes out as gay, people know what that means.

...