A cisgender man has revealed he is mistaken for a woman “every day” – with people even stopping him in public to comment.
Lucas McCarson says that, despite being born male and identifying as a man, people regularly think he was either born female or a transgender woman.
The 21-year-old, who works as a barista, went viral on TikTok recounting an exchange he had with a customer at work.
In the clip, which garnered nine million views, a woman presumably believed he was living as a transgender woman, and he claims she told him “God can bring you back from this”.
And the exchange is far from out of the ordinary for the young man.
“I am mistaken for a woman every day, in almost everything I do,” Lucas, from Kentucky, US, told What’s The Jam.
“I was mistaken for a woman all the way back to middle school, even with short hair.
“I have been blessed with my mom’s Filipino genes.
“I think I have the perfect combination of culturally feminine characteristics.
“No matter how I dress or act, people automatically assume I am a woman.”
“As a cis-man who has never had to transition, it made me feel extremely insecure.
“I have never identified with anything other than my assigned gender, so I often find myself angry when people look at me and often treat me as a woman/trans person.
“I wake up like this.
“I don’t ‘dress up as a woman’ – I put clothes on.
“I don’t ‘talk like a woman’ – I just speak.”
Lucas shared a video of himself recounting the story on TikTok, where he explained the customer “looked him up and down”, grabbed hold of his hands and said: “As a Christian woman, I feel determined to let you know that God has you in his hands.”
He explains: “Usually the type of people who feel the need to say that – especially to people who look like me – are usually of the hating genre.”
As he was working, Lucas said he simply thanked her, before she added: “Know that God can bring you back from…this.”
The clip garnered 1.6 million likes and thousands of messages.
One person commented: “You’re so insanely androgynous I LOVE IT.”
“You are somehow both pretty and handsome simultaneously,” said another viewer.
Someone else added: “Bro you are beautiful wth.” [sic]
“I don’t even think I’ve seen anyone who hovers the gender line so intensely and I love it so much,” said another fan.
One user commented: “THAT’S CRAZY.”
“I’m very confused but also you’re pretty and handsome?? Help my genderdar is confuzzled,” another viewer said. [sic]
Lucas added: “I learned to flow with my androgyny instead of feeling like it was holding me back.
“I am both a balance of feminine and masculine because there are no rules, I just happen to look the way I do and I take that as a blessing.
“As a cisgender man, this gives me insight into how women and trans people are treated every day – and though I do not live my life as a woman, I understand how much respect women deserve and how much courage and resilience they have.”
