I have seasonal allergies. If you were to ask me how severe, I would say just enough to take one or two pills at the start of the season. Maybe I would use a quarter bottle of Dayquil on those few really bad days.

You would rightly judge that the symptoms are not severe. I may be suffering, but not too much.

But what if I told you that I had engaged in years of medical interventions? Or that I had undergone life-altering surgery and have prescriptions I will take for the rest of my life.

You would probably conclude that these allergies are serious. If not life-threatening, certainly the condition impacts my quality of life.

You may even be happy for me that I have had the time and ability to marshal resources to find relief.

I think of transgender people this way. I don’t know much about this, but from the bullying I have seen and read about, from the outrageous rate of suicide among this population, by any measure, this is a serious condition.

Those taking the journey of transition have not done so lightly. It is long and conflicted, and often unhappy. Again, I don’t know much about this. I can only witness a person who makes such a herculean effort with so little in his or her favor. The results are not always satisfactory.

With allergies, I don’t feel isolated. A plethora of TV commercials gives the impression that many people suffer from allergies. I might get sympathy from the non-itchy, dry-nose, clear-eyed group or empathy from fellow sufferers.

I don’t think anyone would laugh at me. Nobody would call me names. No one would blame me or say it’s something I made up. A government would not make my condition illegal. I would not be imprisoned.

Compassion. When I see a tissue-tugging, teary-eyed companion or I meet a parent whose child must stay within stabbing distance of an EpiPen, I feel compassion. Compassion is the superpower that lets us peer into another’s soul. We see and recognize that each of us have differences... and we become more human.

Michael Cronin lives in Norwich, where he raised six children.